MANUEL AND GREGORIA REYES IN CALIFORNIA

 

MANUEL TORRES REYES

1925

He went by Manuel Torres Reyes, but that was the Spanish style of naming, where the father's surname comes first, followed by the mother's.

Manuel was the son of Mariano Torres and María Reyes.

But, when Manuel was born in 1898, the Chamorros were still using the Spanish system of naming. In the US system, he would have been Manuel Reyes Torres. Guam Chamorros didn't switch to the US naming system until 1919 or 1920, and a small number of Guam Chamorros didn't even make the change.

So when Manuel left for the US long before 1920, he carried with him the name he always knew himself to have : Manuel Torres Reyes. When he got to the US, he became Manuel T. Reyes. Reyes now was his legal surname.

Manuel was in California already in 1918, since he registered for the draft that year during World War I. He was living in Alameda at the time, and working as a printer at a a fruit cannery.

MANUEL LATER IN LIFE

It seems Manuel made a career switch not long after and by the 1920s was a merchant marine, getting his seaman's protection certificate in 1925. Manuel lived in various places in California during his long life, passing away in 1976.

Manuel was married for a time to a Native American woman from Alaska and had one daughter. Eventually he married Frances Garcia and had many children with her, and their descendants are still living in California to this day and elsewhere.

HIS SISTER GREGORIA

GREGORIA TORRES REYES

Manuel has a sister named Gregoria who also moved to California sometime in the 1920s.

Gregoria had married a California native who was working on Guam by the name of Ivan Lewis Bondshu. They were married on Guam in 1916 and their first two children were born on Guam. Then the family relocated to California where Ivan and Gregoria had more children. She married a second time, to José León in California, and passed away in 1966.

SMALL CHAMORRO COMMUNITY

Manuel and Gregoria were part of a small Chamorro community in California that moved there before World War II. After the war, thousands of Chamorros from Guam moved to the Golden State. 

But, before the war, the small numbers of Chamorros living in California were very scattered. Some didn't have any contact at all with other Chamorros for long periods of time. But Manuel and Gregoria seemed to keep come contact with each other and relatives, such as "Ben" Cruz of Guam, who died in Modesto, California in a road accident in 1937.

MANUEL T. REYES

with other Chamorro Seamen on the SS JD Peters in 1930

He was listed as a cook

The two other Chamorros were messboys