JUAN CASTRO aka RON ANTONIO CASTRO was born in Dallas, TX on July 2, 1942 to Lucille Bates Castro of Dallas and Juan Casas Castro of Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico. At the age of four, his family moved to Los Angeles where he was raised and educated. Juan attended John Marshall High School where he excelled as a quarterback but eventually gravitated toward Drama. He never lost his passion for sports but continued to study acting at L.A. City College. Later he took on stage roles at the Inner City Repertory Theatre, the Carmen Zapata Theater, and the Mark Taper Forum. He also had a steady stream of guest starring roles on a variety of television series including Adam 12, Mission Impossible, The Streets of San Francisco, and Vegas. In 1975 he earned a Bachelors in Theatre Arts from UCLA with the distinction of Cum Laude. The following year he was accepted to UCLAs MFA program in Directing. His masters thesis was the play, EQUUS, by Peter Shaffer. It was so well received that it was ultimately extended which at that time was rarely done at UCLA. He graduated with an MFA in Theatre Arts in 1978. After graduating, he continued to do film and theatre work. Then in 1980 he was cast in the lead role of Allessandro in the outdoor play called, Ramona, in Hemet, CA. Juliana Rasmussen played the female lead. He called her Jewel, and they were rarely apart ever since. They lived for a couple of years in the L.A. community of Silver Lake. During that time Juan was Artistic Director of the Gene Dynarsky Theatre, and worked in collaboration with Raul Carrera and Gene Dynarsky. This team along with a powerful company of actors enjoyed rave reviews for productions such as Megan Terrys Hot House, Jean Anhouilhs Waltz of the Torreadors, (both directed by Juan) and The Crucible by Arthur Miller. All the while, Juan was very athletic and highly competitive about it. He played tennis often. He and Jewel hiked and backpacked often, including 60 miles on the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevadas, and twenty miles in Haleakala Volcano on Maui. They continued to enjoy back country walks together through this year. Throughout his life he was a passionate fan of basketball and football. He said the only time he ever fainted was in school when he was quarterback and his team lost the game. In 1982 Juan and Jewel, and their friends Raul and Nancy Carrera drove out of L.A. to make a new home in Dallas where both couples had family. In the winter of 1983, while on vacation in Austin, Juan proposed to Jewel at the Pecan Street Café. They had had many adventures camping in Hawaii. So at sundown on May 26th, 1983 they were married on the beach, at Napili Kai cove on Maui, HI. The groom wore a tux with no shirt, a slightly golden lei of orchids, and no shoes...he was dark bronze and fabulous. After their honeymoon, they resumed their life in Texas. But one summer, after visiting Juans brother Michael and his wife Beth in the Pacific Northwest, Juan and Jewel fell in love with the area and soon moved to Bainbridge Island, WA. Juan was involved with theatre in Seattle. In 1985 he and Jewel moved to St. Augustine, FL because Juan was hired to teach acting and direct the plays at Florida School of the Arts in Palatka. They stayed two years, but missed the northwest and ultimately returned in 1987. This time they lived in a log cabin at the edge of the Olympic National Forest near Port Ludlow. They thought a cabin near the water would be romantic. Juan said it was the coldest winter he had ever felt. Later they moved a little south to Silverdale. In 1989 Juan became a tenured professor of Drama at San Diego Mesa College. When he was interviewing at Mesa, he was also interviewing at the University of Texas at El Paso. It was a crossroads. While he was in El Paso interviewing, he visited his fathers grave for the first time since his funeral. He was looking for an answer, and asked his father which way should he go? Instead of pointing him in a direction, the message he got was use my name. And from that day he professionally went by Juan. And from the moment he changed his name to Juan, he felt his life changed dramatically for the better. In the end he chose Mesa College. He very much liked his Dean at that time, Ms. Betty Jo Tucker, and simply felt at home at Mesa. Juan soon became tenured and taught Acting and Cinema and directed most of the plays from 1989 to 2009. He also chaired the Drama Department for many years. There was a period of four or five years that he directed 4 main productions per academic year, plus taught seven classes plus he chaired the Drama Department. He did not run the ship alone. The other person carrying an equal but different load was his colleague, Kris Clark. He always said that he and Kris were a perfect compliment to one another. Over time Kris expressed an interest in directing and so Juan was able to lessen his load, with Kris directing a production and the students directing a series of one acts. Kris and Juan worked hard side by side for eighteen years. Inspired by the Cedar Fire of 2003 which came right into their back yard, Juan and Jewel decided that when it came time for Juan to retire, they would return to the Northwest. In 2006 they bought a home in Gig Harbor. In 2007 another catastrophic fire happened near their home in Ramona. In 2009 they decided to sell the Ramona house. The economy was bad. They were prepared for it to be on the market for years. It sold in 3 days. With that, Juan decided it was a good time to retire. From 2009 through 2013, Juan returned to Mesa every Spring semester as Professor ProRata, and taught acting and cinema classes. He was delighted to find that quite a number of students looked forward to taking his classes. His classes filled. He enjoyed retirement but every winter looked forward to working with the Drama students again. In July this year Juan joined Jewel as she did an artist residency at the deYoung Museum in San Francisco. He supported her in every way...walked her to and from the museum, made her dinner every night. Provided feedback for her works in progress and her lecture preparation. They were always supportive of each others careers. Then on July 27th, Juan was coming down their SF apartments interior stairs, tripped and fell. He managed not to hit the floor, but he slammed the right side of his upper back into the stairwell wall. He did not tell Jewel. He and Jewel began driving home from San Francisco on July 29th. When they got home he told Jewel about the fall. During August they were still taking daily walks for one to two miles. But it was obvious that his back was getting worse. He proceeded to get attention from their family Doctor for what they thought was a wrenched back. By September they and the doctors knew something much more serious was wrong but no one knew what it was. Throughout, Juan was in great spirits and mainly protective of his football season as the Seahawks needed his help of course. A series of tests were done to rule out heart trouble and to check out other things. His heart was fine. But on September 26th a CT scan was done. He was admitted to the hospital that same day for pulmonary embolisms in both lungs. Juan and Jewel were also told that he had cancer in multiple places. It was not known what kind of cancer because its origin was not certain. This news was too overwhelming to process all at once. So they focused on the PEs. He was admitted and treated for two nights at Saint Anthony Hospital Gig Harbor. Very difficult treatment continued at home. Juan and Jewel worked as a team on this. He was tremendous throughout but never quite the same after that hospitalization. When he was well enough to travel, he and Jewel were told he had stage 4 cancer and there was nothing that could be done for him except make him comfortable. They felt like they had been kicked in the gut and dragged through the street that day. But they recovered by the next morning and decided to fight in alternative ways. Juans brother Mike was in town from D.C. He got Juan an appointment with the great naturopath Dr. Leanna Standish of the Bastyr clinic north of Seattle. Dr. Standish had saved Michaels life ten years before through naturopath medicine, so the family hoped that she could perform a miracle for Juan, or at least slow it down. It was a beautiful meeting...Juan surrounded by Jewel and Mike and his wife, Beth...while Dr. Standish very kindly spoke to Juan as if he were a viable person, going over his body very gently. Her peaceful positive approach made Juan feel wonderful. With the direction of her colleague, Dr. Cochran, Juan began high dose Vitamin C IV treatments. This is a naturopath approach to fighting cancer, based on the research of scientist Linus Pauling. It was definitely helping Juan in some ways, and yet every week after his first hospitalization he was dramatically weaker and clearly worse. And still throughout, Juan continued to be positive and it may have done more good if he had been treated sooner. On November 8th Friday, Juan was diagnosed with pneumonia. The doctors said that cancer patients can just pass by it in the air and get it, or simply come down with it on their own because their immune systems are so diminished. Juan was travelling to clinics five days per week and may have become exposed at some point. He was hospitalized again at Saint Anthonys Hospital that night. He and Jewel thought he would get well in the hospital and then go home. He had every intention of going back to Bastyr soon. But he became worse by Saturday morning. His care required very difficult measures for him to sustain physically. By 5:30 that evening he had had enough. By 6pm Juan was free from all of the equipment and made very comfortable. He said to Jewel, Hold my hand and dont let go until its over. She held on. Throughout all of the difficult weeks before this night, Juan had done everything valiantly, with great humor and stupefying courage. He repeated only one complaint throughout. And that was during the last four weeks of his life, he and his wife could not sleep together. So with that in mind, and knowing he had plenty of pain meds working, in his final hours Jewel crawled into bed with him, still holding his hand, but now also holding his body close. And in this way, Juan very peacefully left just before 3A.M. on Sunday, November 10th. Final notes from Jewel: It was only six weeks from diagnosis until that Sunday. Other than his back, and some previous complaints of arthritis, we really had no idea that he was not well. We simply thought he had hurt his back and maybe cracked a rib. I asked him a couple of times if he remembered feeling anything wrong and he said both times that he did not. He was as shocked as I was. It was a blessing he did not have to suffer long. Except for three close friends and family, he never told anyone about his illness because he did not want people worried. He did not want to have to speak of it with anyone more than those he was required to. And so why tell this now? I guess I just felt the need to share it. Particularly with his students and old friends who might wonder what in the world happened? I thought it might be healing to let people know that he left in such a gentle way. Me telling it heals me. His process of passing surely demonstrated the magnificence of this man at his full age of 71, with all of the wisdom and experience that his long life provided him. Such a lion! Both Juan and I think of passing as a birthing into another kind of living. And as you know, birthing is not easy. He did it with grace and dignity and I truly feel by going to levels...which only his students can appreciate. He will be cremated and when it is my turn, our ashes will be spread together in a favorite location. A note for certain friends: At one point that evening he looked straight ahead as if seeing something and excitedly asked, Is that Big John? I said no, hes not here, thinking he was talking of his brother in Texas. He seemed disappointed for a second but then a happy look came across his face. I puzzled over that and then realized this week that he was talking about an old friend, scientist Jon Ericson, Professor Ericson of UC Irvine. Jon passed maybe two years ago I think. Juan used to refer to Jon as Big Jon because he said, Jon was a bear of a man. It made me smile to think that sweet Jon, truly a kind soul, had come to help him to the other side Juan and I had 34 extraordinary years together. We were lovers throughout. We have no regrets about our choices only that we have to be apart for awhile. I spoke to his sister this week...she said she had a flash of a dream of him. I believe flashes are visits. He drove up to her in a sports car and said, Ill see you at your place on Tuesday! And then drove off. I said to her, Im sure hell be there.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 11:08:43 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015