Brother of Charlotte scaffolding collapse victim: ‘He was always the life of the party’
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Charlotte Scaffolding Collapse
On Jan. 2, 2023, scaffolding collapsed at a construction site in Charlotte, killing three workers.
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Joshua Sena has had an extraordinarily difficult time, emotionally, with all of the attention focused on the scaffolding collapse that killed three men at a Charlotte construction site on Monday.
The main reason is obvious: Because his older brother — 42-year-old Jesus Arevalo Olivares, a South Carolina husband and father of four — was one of the victims. But adding to the anguish is the fact that he feels like most of the attention has been directed toward figuring out what happened, and the why, and the how, while very little of it has concentrated on the who.
“I understand a lot of people are curious,” Sena says. “I would much rather people remember my brother and celebrate his life as opposed to his death. He would have wanted it that way. ...
“Sometimes, unfortunately, when you’re blue-collar like that and tragedies happen, you become a statistic, or just a number.”
Attempts this week to reach members of the families of the two other men who died — Jose Canaca and Gilberto Monico Fernández — were unsuccessful. But Sena, one of three surviving siblings of Olivares’s, spoke to The Charlotte Observer in a phone interview on Wednesday morning about a man, he says, whose “whole life revolved around his children.”
“That’s the only reason that man got up every day at the time he did,” Sena says, “to go out and do what he did, because he knew he had responsibilities and he took care of business the best way he knew how.”
To protect his brother’s family’s privacy, Sena declined to share the names and ages of Olivares’s children, only noting that Olivares and his wife of two years, Marisol, recently celebrated the birthday of their 1-year-old.
Sena says Olivares was born in Mexico and brought to the U.S. by his parents when he was a young boy.
“He didn’t speak the language in the beginning,” Sena says, “but his persistence and the constant asking questions ... he picked up the language very quickly.”
As a teenager, Olivares learned masonry from their father, and although he had opportunities to return to their home country, he decided — like his siblings — to stay in America.
“My brother was very proud of his Mexican heritage. He loved his country,” Sena says. “But he understood that that country didn’t have a lot to offer him if he wanted to progress in life. So he just knew that he had to do something better for himself, and he put his foot forward (in his) trade, and he excelled at it. There were very few people that could lay the amount of material that he did in a day.”
Sena says he and his brother, whom he considered his best friend, moved to the Charlotte area more than 20 years ago and lived in nearby homes outside of the city.
Many of the most recent memories Sena shared of Olivares painted a picture of a genial man who loved a good time and who relished being in the company of others:
- “He loved his football games. ... He followed the Patriots. And when the quarterback (Tom Brady) changed over to Tampa Bay, he was so proud. He came (over) a few days ago and showed off this really nice, red Tampa Bay hat he had just got.”
- “He loved to be outside. Bonfires and ... shooting off fireworks (on New Year’s Eve) and just laughing. And as loud as he was, he was always the life of the party. He was always willing to get down there and light the fuse on the firework ’cause nobody else would. ... And anything that involved cooking on the grill ... he was ready. ‘You want me to go start the grill? I’ll start it right now.’”
- “We had some new neighbors move in ... and he was the first person to walk over and introduce himself. And hell, for New Year’s, they were sitting around together eating tacos for Christ’s sakes, and they’d only met each other a few days before. ... I said, ‘Where’d you disappear to?’ He said, ‘Oh, I went to the neighbors’ house. I went to wish ’em a Happy New Year and shot the s--- for a minute, and he invited me for some tacos. So, you know me — I’m gonna sit down and eat!’”
Sena laughs as he recalls that conversation, and laughs again when he explains why those closest to Olivares often called him “Chuy,” a common nickname for Hispanic men named Jesus: “We understand that in American culture you don’t walk around calling people Jesus.”
But he chokes up as he recalls his last memory of his brother.
As they often did, they got together for coffee and breakfast early on Monday morning. As Olivares was heading out the door, Sena says, “I told him to have a great day and to get after it — you know, ‘We got bills to pay.’ I told him, ‘I’ll see you this evening.’”
Of his brother’s profession, Sena offered these thoughts:
“From the time we were allowed to work, that’s what he chose to do and he enjoyed it because it took him to a lot of different places and being outside,” he says. “He probably didn’t appreciate the really cold days — I can tell you that — but he enjoyed just being with his friends. ...
“I was like, ‘Man, that’s a lot of hard work, you might want to think about doing something else.’ Also ... I used to do that. I absolutely understand how dangerous that work is. (But) he just enjoyed doing it. He said, ‘It is hard, but I get along with my friends and it makes the work day just that much easier to enjoy where you’re at.’”
There’s a long silence on the phone before Sena continues.
“You see his kids, and it’s really difficult to see ’em and know that, ‘Hey, the man that made sure that you were well taken care of, well-fed, is no longer here,’” he says, his voice breaking.
“He will be very, very, very missed.”
A GoFundMe has been set up to help Jesus “Chuy” Arevalo Olivares’s wife and children here.
Remembering Gilberto Monico Fernández
Fernández had been planning on leaving the construction business in just two weeks, according to Observer news partner WSOC.
Members of his family described him to WSOC as a dedicated worker and family man who used his income from the job to help support his family — two children and three grandchildren — back in his hometown of Veracruz, Mexico.
“He was a very hard-working man,” his sister-in-law, Maria Alcantara, wrote on a fundraiser created in his memory. “He did not like to miss work or make problems. He was very friendly with the people who knew him, they knew that he always showed and gave his help to anyone. He had a big heart.”
Remembering Jose Canaca
People who knew the 26-year-old Canaca described him to other media outlets as an affable presence in the Charlotte skateboarding community.
One of them — Patrick Carroll, owner of Armada Skate Shop on Eastway Drive — told WCCB Charlotte that Canaca had been a regular for many years. “He’d come in, spread the love and get out and you know within the hour you’d see videos on Instagram of him actually skating the board we just sold him,” Carroll recalls, “and it was kinda an awesome thing to witness.”
Carroll added that Canaca was among the construction workers assigned to help build the former DIY SkatePark at the old Eastland Mall site off Central Avenue.
In an interview with WSOC, friend Juan Donado called Canaca “genuine, loving, goofy. He made everyone laugh. Great, energetic guy.”
And in the fundraiser she created on GoFundMe’s website, Iris Bonilla said her son was “a hard-working boy who knew the word of God.”
This story was originally published January 6, 2023 at 1:59 PM.
