By Barbara Nelson, Contributor 
Joe and Maria Pinchin.
HIS HAIR is white now and he walks with the help of a cane, but his voice still has the timbre that endeared him to so many Jamaicans way back in the 1940s.
At that time there was only one radio station in Jamaica ZQI and it came on the air for one hour on a Sunday afternoon.
Joseph Pinchin produced and voiced a programme called Words of Inspiration, poetry with a background of music, heard for 15 years on ZQI.
Prior to that his beautiful voice and perfect pronunciation earned for him the title of champion elocutionist in Jamaica when he was only 14 years old. After that he dominated the field longer than any other elocutionist in the island's history. The Jesuit Fathers at St. George's College trained him from 1937-1949. He won gold medals in the under-13 years, under-16 years and all Jamaica classes.
Many opportunities to serve
Now 84 years old, Joseph looks back at a full and rewarding life in which he had many opportunities to serve. From 1943 to 1951, for example, he was secretary of the Chinese Retailers Association and the youngest person appointed to the Food Trade Committee, a powerful body that monitored the quality of food coming into the island.
During that time he fell in love with a pretty Cuban girl, Maria Gonzales Alvarez, who was a student at Immaculate High School. On January 26, 1949, her 18th birthday, they were married in a civil ceremony in Cuba followed by a Catholic wedding there on January 29.
Joe Pinchin became manager for L.J. Williams Marketing Ltd in 1949 and stayed with the company until 1951 when he moved into a very productive phase of his career. He became manager for American Life Insurance Company in Jamaica and remained in insurance until he left the field in 1995.
"Joe was a cornerstone of American Life Insurance," his wife Maria commented as she displayed several photographs taken of her husband when he won the Richard Rhoderbeck gold medal for the best insurance salesman at a function held in 1955 in Wilmington, Delaware, in the United States.
"Mr. Rhoderbeck was such a good person," Mr. Pinchin added. "He loved me like a son."
In 1958 Joe was awarded a certificate for the highest earnings with Alico Worldwide at a function held in Mexico City.
Joe Pinchin was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1959 by the then Governor of Jamaica, Sir Kenneth Blackburn, and also made a director of the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC) and a director of the National Development Bank in 1962. In 1963 he was appointed a director of the Jamaica Services Commission. He was well-liked by people on both sides of the political fence in Jamaica.
Meanwhile Joe and Maria's family was growing and soon they had three daughters and two sons. By 1964 Maria had enough time on her hands to start the Latin American Women's Club. Since then she has been president from time to time and is once again in the role of president. The association is mostly made up of the wives of diplomats and women who are involved in international organizations.
Much of the work of the Latin American Women's club is well known in Jamaica. Its members are always around to greet the first baby born on Christmas day with gifts and good wishes. However, the club also sponsors two Jamaican students who are studying Spanish at the UWI on an exchange programme to Colombia. Dr. Claudette Williams, head of the Modern Language Department at the UWI, said students who go on the exchange return with very positive reports about the trip. The Colombians who come to Jamaica are also very positive about the experience.
The Latin American Women's Club also adopts two children at the SOS village on an annual basis.
"Those are the major things we do, and we also extend charity to Stella Maris, to the Brothers of the Poor, to St. Monica's lepers home and other little things," Maria explained.
Honorary Consul
of Peru
One of the high points in Joe and Maria's life was the time when Fernandez Alva, Peruvian ambassador to Jamaica, asked Joe to be the Honorary Consul of Peru in Jamaica in 1989 when the embassy was closed that year. He served in that capacity for six years and in 1997 was awarded the Order of Caballero from the Peruvian Government.
Today, much to their delight, their eldest daughter Anna Maria Ching has followed in their father's footsteps and serves as honorary consul for Jamaica in Ecuador.
The couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1999 and together they now enjoy great peace and contentment in their beautiful home on Seaview Avenue, St. Andrew.
