The Gilroy Amigos

I want to introduce you to the group of guys that will be doing the walk. With the exception of my brother Jose who lives in Marbella, Spain, we all live in Gilroy. The "Gilroy Amigos" is a group of twelve guys but for various reasons only the four of us will be doing the walk.

From left to right
Front: Ed Mitchell and Emilio de Sousa
Back: Jose Carlos Diaz, Manuel Diaz, Larry Marques

Thanks to the magic of PhotoShop, Larry has come up with this composite picture of the five of us. Pretty good, I think, considering that my head came from another picture, Jose wasn't even there, and Larry, even on a good day, doesn't look half as good... Larry, if you read this, I'm just kidding.

By way of introduction here are a few details to remember us by:

Larry and Ed are native Californians. This is interesting to note because there are a lot of folks in California our age that were born in other states or other countries. Emilio was born in Portugal while Jose and I were born in Spain.

Larry was born in San Francisco, the son of Spanish parents. He was a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and has been retired for about a decade. He is a great flamenco guitar player. Here he is playing guitar after a nice lunch of Jamon Iberico in Emilio's bodega (wine cellar.)

Ed is a native of the San Fernando Valley. He went to school with Donna and Ritchie! Seriously. Ed was a Silicon Valley executive and the only one with any kind of hiking experience in the group. He has been a fountain of knowledge to us sll as we've been preparing for the camino.

Emilio was an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley.  He now spends a lot his time either with his buddies, or making wine, or at the mechanic, or at the doctor. Don't worry, he is in great health. Just likes visiting the doc. Emilio makes really good wine (with a little help from his friends.) His Cabernet is, in my opinion, one of the three best cabs produced in the Santa Clara Valley and there are more than twenty wineries in the valley. He doesn't drink alcohol at all and has to rely on the generosity of his friends to consume the wine that he makes. We are always happy to oblige. In case you're interested, he doesn't sell his wine to the public.

Jose, the youngster among us, lives in Spain. He has been to California many times and knows all of us well, especially me. He quit smoking as a new year's resolution in preparation for the walk. We wish him well and we'll make sure he doesn't go into a relapse while he is with us. Jose is a graphics artist and an Apple fanatic. He has so many Apple computers that he could set up a museum. In an earlier life he taught PhotoShop. Not sure if Larry learned his PhotoShop skills from Jose. Jose convinced me years ago to stop using Windows and start using Apple computers. My entire family has used nothing but Apple products for years. iMacs, iPhones, iPads, iPods, the works. Thanks Jose! Our lives are richer because of your advice.

I've been in California since 1980. Worked as an executive in hi-tech and retired 3.5 years ago at the height of the downturn. Since then, I've been having a hard time finding time to do all the stuff I want to do. Preparing for the walk has finally gotten me off my sedentary butt and I am probably in better shape now than I've been during the last fifteen years. Oh, did I mention that when I was in my mid-twenties I was hit by a train?

Now you know a bit about each of us.