Joaquin Oliver

With his frosted hair, caring smile and strong moral compass, 17-year-old Joaquin Oliver, or “Guac,” as friends called him, filled his life with sports, music and friends in equal measure.

Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Joaquin immigrated to America at age 3 with his father Manuel, mother Patricia and sister Andrea, becoming a naturalized citizen in 2017. He never strayed from his roots, relentlessly cheering Venezuela’s national soccer team and the Miami Heat.

Around Parkland, Joaquin loved pick-up basketball games after school at Pine Trails Park, when he wasn’t shooting hoops and blocking goals for the city’s youth basketball and soccer leagues. “He was always so, so fair,” his sister, Andrea Ghersi, told the student newspaper, Eagle Eye. “In his eyes, everyone deserved to be happy … everyone deserved to have a voice.”

Once, flustered after a basketball referee ejected him from a game, Joaquin turned to his coach — his father. Manuel Oliver called the league to ask that the referee be replaced with someone more fair.

“We wanted a fair game,” says Oliver, whose gun-safety organization, Change the Ref, is named in Joaquin’s memory. Since the mass shooting, Oliver has staged guncontrol rallies across the country, painting murals emblazoned with Joaquin’s face. “The best way to honor Joaquin is to fight to make sure this won’t happen to anyone else.”

Joaquin loved Frank Ocean and hip-hop — even tolerated Manuel’s “dad rock.” Oliver fondly recalls one fatherson summer trip to Cocoa Beach, quickly scuttled when Joaquin realized Guns N’ Roses were performing in Orlando that night. “Joaquin said, ‘Let’s go,’ and two hours later, we’re looking at GNR onstage. His favorite guitar player is Slash, and his favorite book is ‘The Godfather,’ so when that played [the theme from Francis Ford Coppola’s] ‘The Godfather,’ he totally flipped. I will never forget that moment in his life.”

Donations in Joaquin’s memory may be made at ChangetheRef.org.