Gene Espinosa
Name: Gene Espinosa
Birth Name: Eugenio Patrimonio Espinosa
Hometown: Guadalupe, California, USA
Birthplace: Iloilo City, Iloilo, Philippines
Died: 1989-01-11 (Age:78)
Height: 165cm
Pro Boxer: Record
Manager: Benny Ford
During much of his career, Gene Espinosa lived in Guadalupe, California, a small community located nine miles from Santa Maria and in a highly productive agricultural area. It was reported that Espinosa worked in the local fields like many other fellow Filipinos during the 1930s. According to the late Jack Smith, Sr., a former football and track coach at Ventura High School in Ventura, Espinosa was a fanatic about conditioning and would run the entire distance of nine miles between Guadalupe and Santa Maria. Smith added that Espinosa was a crowd pleasing fighter.
According to the California Death Records database on the genealogical website, RootsWeb, there is a Gene P. Espinosa who was born on June 2, 1910 in the Philippines and died on January 11, 1989 in San Francisco County.
According to the U.S. Naturalization Record Indexes, 1791-1992 database on Ancestry.com, one Gene Espinosa was born on June 2, 1909 and was living in San Francisco, California at the time his certificate was issued on September 17, 1951. His name was changed from Eugenio Patrimonio Espinosa. His certificate was issued on September 17, 1951.
According to his petition for naturalization in digital form on the California, Federal Naturalization Records, 1843-1999 database on Ancestry.com, one Eugenio Patrimonio Espinosa (AKA Gene Espinosa), a 42-year-old busboy and a resident of San Francisco, California, was born on June 2, 1909 in Lapaz, Ilolio, Philippine Islands. He was 5 feet, 5 inches in height and weighed 140 pounds. Espinosa had a scar over his left eye. Espinosa lawfully entered the United States on December 12, 1928 in San Francisco aboard the SS President Jefferson. In addition to attesting to changing his name to Gene Espinosa, he took his citizenship oath on September 17, 1951. Note- Once a separate town, Lapaz is now one of seven districts in Ilolio City, Philippines.