It is with profound sadness that I write to inform you of the death of a treasured member of Dining Services, Juana Mosqueda. An employee of Dining Services since 2000, Juana passed away peacefully in her sleep on March 22. She would have been 59 on April 2.
Born in Mexico (Michoacan), Juana lived with her loving sister, nieces, and nephews in the Perez home in Santa Cruz.
Juana made a positive impression on everyone she met while working at Cowell/Stevenson Dining Hall. She was known for her wonderful heart and for treating others with respect and kindness. Juana's duties always had her working out front with the customers, which is what she loved most about Dining. It was a position that enabled her to touch so many people so warmly on a daily basis.
Anytime you would walk into the servery, if Juana was there, you would get a smile and a cheery hello. Juana had such a beautiful presence about her, she was somewhat of the "Matriarch" at the dining hall; someone you could talk to and someone who would listen.
Juana was in our Dining Yearbook and shared that her favorite food was "pizza," her favorite part of working for Dining was "everything - especially all the people," and her favorite hobby was "chatting." If she could travel anywhere, she would have gone to Venice to ride in a gondola; we think she's riding in heaven's gondola now!
Juana will be dearly missed by all of her co-workers and the many, many students with whom she interacted. At the recent all-dining staff meeting, her coworkers remembered Juana with a heartfelt tribute and the lighting of a memorial candle. Our dining team is like a family, so this loss affects us all.
For more information about Juana's life, please read the family's obituary, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
