Juan Baeza Pomares

Juan Baeza Pomares, 86 of San Diego California passed away July 1, 2024. He was born in El Altet, Spain October 13, 1937.As a young man, Juan attended The Seminary of Orihuela in Alicante, Spain where he studied for 15 years and graduated with a degree in Theology. As part of the church, Juan began his young adult life, dedicated to the pursuit of helping people as a missionary. His first mission at that age of 30 took him across the Atlantic to Guatemala. He was the first of his family to venture across the Atlantic to a world very different from where he grew up. He spent two years as a missionary in Guatemala spreading the word of Christ to the Guatemalans, conducting charitable work and helping to meet the needs of the community. After his mission in Guatemala was complete, he was called to the United States to continue his calling. He eventually made his way to Chino, California where he met Zoila and he decided it was time to leave the diocese and start a Family. His passion for helping people never left him, so he pursued a career as a social worker. He continued this path for 25 years working for Bayside Settlement House, now known as Bayside Community Center, a non-profit, neighborhood-based organization that serves the whole person and community. He worked and retired from the center, as a director, whose mission it was to empower and meet the needs of lower income immigrants and native-born residents in urban settings. During this time Juan was also perfecting his skill at cooking Paella Valenciana, a traditional Spanish dish cooked by his mother. He started out cooking for family and friends and soon, the word spread around San Diego about the paella. He took a chance and started, what we now call a side-hustle. He started catering his paella for small and large family events. The San Diego community loved the dish, the presentation and the love he put into every event. It was now time for Juan to make another difficult decision, leave the comfort of his career of 25 years as a social worker and go in a different direction and that’s exactly what he did. He started his next adventure of 40 years, as the owner of Paella Valenciana, a catering company specializing in the flavors of Spain as he knew them with recipes passed down from his mother. He spent the next period of his life cooking his Paella for the special moments in people’s lives.

Juan shared his life with his wife, his pocholina, Elisa Pomares, who he married on September 28, 1991, at St. Michaels Church. They were married for 34 years. She was his best friend, love of his life and his partner. He could not be without her.

Juan had a passion for his family, painting, golf and his plumerias. He is survived by his daughter Maite and his son Juan Carlos, his grandchildren Jose Luis, Nicolas, Sophia, and Dominic. His family was always his priority. He dedicated his life to them. He worked hard to provide for his children and made many sacrifices to make sure he could always make that cross Atlantic trip to visit his parents, his brothers and sisters, his nieces and nephews. He was the patriarch of his family. His legacy was to preserve family unity and love across oceans. This responsibility is now preserved through his survivors. In the retirement phase of his life, he played golf with friends weekly, visited his family in Spain annually and spent hours on his patio with his cultivated plumerias listening to Hawaiian music while painting. His paintings of flamenco dancers and landscapes of Spain and Hawaii are his works of art that are filled with his spirit.