Carmela Jara

Carmela Reneé Jara Rebaza

June 21, 1940 — September 29, 2023

Carmela Reneé Jara passed away peacefully at her home on September 29, 2023, in Ventura, California. She was the fourth of nine siblings born to Demócrito Jara Ampuero and Carmela Rebaza Rodríguez in Huamachuco, Perú. To her family, she was known as Carmela, but in the U.S.A., she was known as Reneé.

Reneé grew up in Huamachuco, Perú until age 19 when she met her future husband, Alejandro Pimentel Rebaza, who was from Lima, Perú. They had four children named Alejandro, Cecilia, Charo and Lucía, all born and raised in Lima, Perú.

Reneé was a trailblazer, being the first among a long line of immigrant relatives who came from Perú since the 1970s and settled mostly in California. She always considered herself a minority among minorities in the thriving Latino population of the U.S.

Reneé was known for her profound and practical hospitality. For many years her home was the arriving destination of many of her friends and relatives. She was always on the move, helping people adapt and re-settle in the country.

Reneé is survived by all her four children, Alejandro, Cecilia, Charo and Lucía; her ten grandchildren, to whom she was known as “Nonna,” Fiorella, Claudia, Daniel, Grace, Valerie, Melanie, Jason, Brittanie, Natalie, Stephanie, and Ismael; her five great-grandchildren, Margaret, Rain, Marilyn, Ruben, and Leo; her sisters, Amada, Teresa, and Blanca; and her brother Simón. She was preceded in death by her oldest brother Nelson, her parents Demócrito and Carmela, her husband Alejandro, and her brothers Nicolás, Fernando and Armando.

Renee was always at the center of all family reunions, small and large, and for that she will be greatly missed. But we find consolation in that we will be together again in the presence of our Lord and Heavenly Father.