Gustavo Estrada Gomez

Gustavo was born in Cuernavaca Morelos, Mexico and grew up in East Los Angeles, California, the Highlands. His parents were Sergio and Margarita Estrada. Gustavo had one brother, Sergio Estrada, and two sisters, Maria Crystal Estrada and Jasmine Estrada. Gustavo attended Wilson High School and graduated in 1993. In high school, Gustavo enjoyed journalism and writing, and he received a partial scholarship to USC for journalism, but declined because he is a diehard UCLA Bruins fan.

Gustavo served in the military in the US Navy and was on the U.S.S Juno. He was an engine man and served during time of war in Desert Storm.

Gustavo worked many warehouse jobs throughout the years and went to school for computer programming where he learned to build computer servers for major companies. He worked for Hewlett Packard. Gustavo worked very hard to support his family.

Gustavo was married the love of his life Veronica on March 29, 1999, and was married at Cupid’s wedding chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada. They would have celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on March 29, 2024.

Gustavo and Veronica had four beautiful children Karina (23 years old), Samantha (21 years old), Gustavo Junior (19 years old), and Abbie Jai (15 years old).

Everyone in Gustavo’s immediate family has survived him, except for his mother, who was there to meet him in his passing.

Gustavo loved watching movies and listening to music from every genre. Gus enjoyed watching every sport imaginable. Most of all, he enjoyed spending time with his children and his friends closest to him. He enjoyed barbecuing. He enjoyed dancing and singing karaoke, although he did not have a karaoke voice. Gustavo loved playing football, but he loved watching every single sport.

Gustavo love to write he would write his wife notes and letters almost every day to express to her how much she loved her.

Gustavo was very religious. He loved God and always put God above everything.

Gustavo was an avid dog lover, and had many dogs throughout his life. He had Mugsy and Pepper when he was younger, then he rescued an American bulldog named Tex who became suddenly ill, and the night before his passing, Gus had stayed up all night to comfort him until he passed. A few years later, Gustavo got Maximus at eight weeks a puppy, and raised him to be so protective over his family. The last pet Gus had was an English bulldog named Lady who he rescued who still comes to his bedroom to his side of the bed looking for him.

Gustavo loved to cook for his family. He would get complimented on his cooking by everyone and he would say it’s because he cooks his food with love. He would share this love of cooking with his youngest daughter Abbie. They shared the love of cooking in common, and they would binge watch Chopped and would bet on which contestant was going to get chopped next. This love of cooking would help lead his daughter Abbie to have the dream of becoming a Professional Chef.

Gustavo‘s favorite holiday was Thanksgiving and then Christmas. On Thanksgiving if our turkey would not be in our oven by 5 AM and not cooking at 5 AM he would state that Thanksgiving was ruined and we were not gonna celebrate if he couldn’t smell that his turkey wasn’t cooking at 5 AM. He would throw a fit like a five year old child. Christmas was Gustavo’s second favorite holiday. He loved to watch his wife and his children open gifts and it was so hard for him to keep a secret as to what he bought everybody. He would want to tell everybody what he bought them early and we would all have to say no.

Gus had many traits. He was extremely kind and extremely friendly. He could talk to anyone anywhere. He was honest and caring, more generous than most people on this planet. Gus was extremely confident but humble: he knew where he came from, no matter what status he held at different points in his life. He always remembered where he came from. Optimistic: he would always say if he didn’t know something was gonna happen, he would hope that it was gonna happen. Extremely reliable: his word is what he held above anything. Gus was very patient with his children and his wife, with anyone he held dear to him. Gustavo was outgoing, he could make friends turn into family. Gus was the most loyal person I knew. Gustavo was extremely respectful to everyone. Respect and loyalty were hand-in-hand for him.

Gus was very sensitive and emphatic. He had a soft side to him even when you would look at him he looked rough, but was extremely sweet on the inside. He was extremely thoughtful if I asked or children asked for something, even if it was months later, he would remember he would constantly be thinking about what his family wanted or needed. When Gus was younger he was extroverted. He used to go to every party every day if he could as he got older after his stroke, he became very introverted, this saddened his life. He was very compassionate, and considerate of everyone’s feelings. Gus was very charismatic. He could make anyone laugh, that’s what held our marriage together for 25 years. He made me laugh every day for 25 years. Gus was extremely supportive of any decision that me, or his children made as to what we were going to do in life. One of Gus’ biggest traits was that he was trustworthy. You could trust Gus with anything he would take care of anyone of his friends or family because Gus loved unconditionally.

Gus would most want to be remembered for how he loved his wife and his children.

Gus would buy homeless people food, even alcohol if they were hurting and that’s what they needed, but I’ve seen him take off his favorite boots and give them to a homeless man who didn’t have any shoes, and Gustavo walked home with no shoes on. He would literally give anyone, even a stranger, the shoes off his feet or the shirt off his back because I’ve seen him do it.

Gus had multiple strokes and recovered multiple times from them, but the biggest challenge he overcame was accepting that people are going to be who they are, and he couldn’t change it.

There were so many funny moments with Gus. He was not embarrassed or ashamed of anything, but there was one time that my children wanted Hannah Montana tickets from the local radio station, Gus got dressed up like Hannah Montana went down to the radio station to compete to try and win his kiddos tickets. The radio host said on live TV and live radio that Gus had to be the ugliest woman that he’d ever seen. He even said no we need to take another look at Gus because he is the ugliest woman and drag they’ve ever seen I couldn’t stop laughing for days. Although he did not win the tickets that day, he still made it happen for his kids and we were able to purchase tickets for them to go see Hannah Montana.

When Gus was younger, he had went downtown when VCR had just came out and he used his own money to purchase a VCR and when he got the box home, he opened it up and there were rocks inside. He had gotten scammed and then, his family came together and purchased him a VCR so he learned a hard lesson in life early on.

The day he married, he had said it was one of the happiest days of his life, because he was marrying his best friend and his soulmate.

He owned thousands of movies. He used to collect DVDs until they became obsolete. Now his movie streaming collection is outrageous. Gus loved music from the Beatles and the Eagles to rap and country. There was no genre that Gus didn’t love.

Gus’ favorite color was blue, and why blue? Because every single one of his sports team is blue and because he is from Southern California. He wore nothing but blue.

The life lessons that Gus lived by was respect others as you want them to respect you and do on to others as you want done to you. Gus did not care what anyone had to say about him. He was a take it, or leave it kind of guy. Anyone who came across him knew that he was always with it and anybody that knew him knows exactly what that means.

He had nicknames for everyone and his immediate family so the words that will be embedded to his wife and his children will be I love you Bubba. I love you China. I love you Shorty. I love you DoDo. And I love you munch. Gus would say he will always be down for the Highlands.

Family will receive friends from 5-8pm on Friday, February 16 and from 10-11am on Saturday, February 17, 2024. A funeral service will begin at 11am on Saturday, February 17, 2024, all at Palm Southwest Mortuary, 7979 W. Warm Springs Rd., Las Vegas.