BY MEAGHAN MCGOLDRICK
With many families struggling
to obtain closure after
the loss of loved ones during
the COVID-19 pandemic, one
Sunset Park organization offered
over 100 members of the
Latin American immigrant
community the opportunity
to say their fi nal goodbyes at
a July 2 mass vigil at Green-
Wood Cemetery.
The remembrance was organized
by the Mixteca Organization
as a way to help the
Hispanic community, which
was disproportionately affected
by the coronavirus
pandemic, grieve together.
Family members lit candles,
created a memorial in remembrance
of their loved ones and
said prayers together to honor
those who have died from
COVID-19.
Luis Reyes Tapia attended
the vigil with the ashes of his
friend — 29-year-old Claudio
Ortega Maldonado — in tow.
Maldonado died from the coronavirus
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on April 22, and didn’t
have any family in New York,
Tapia said.
“He asked me, ‘If something
happens to me, can I count on
you?’ I told him he could count
on me,” he said, adding that,
from Green-Wood, Maldonado’s
ashes were to be sent back
to his native Guerrero, Mexico.
“I’m happy now because I’ll
send him to his family. Let’s
hope he gets there and his soul
can rest in his homeland.”
For Reyes, and other attendees,
Mixteca’s memorial service
was the only chance he’s
had to wake his friend.
“I loved him like a brother
and he loved me like a brother,”
Reyes said. “This is the fi rst
time we have the opportunity
to give him the last goodbye.”
For Mixteca, helping immigrant
families get through
the pandemic is not limited to
assisting them in mourning.
The Greenwood Heights community
based organization
has been supporting undocumented
immigrants in the area
for years — and they’ve since
expanded their coverage to service
families as far as Connecticut
and New Jersey because of
the increasingly dire situation
brought on by the pandemic.
Brooklyn’s undocumented
immigrants have seen higher
death rates from the novel coronavirus
than the general population,
and affected families
have had a hard time navigating
the process for burials and
cremations — something organizers
at Mixteca have said is
compounded by a lack of government
support.”
Norma Contreras, who attended
the Green-Wood vigil
to say goodbye to her husband,
said she felt alone in her mourning
until Mixteca stepped in.
“It has been very hard because
the truth is that when
you are in this country, you
are alone and there was no
one who supported me in the
beginning,” said Contreras,
whose husband, Jose Luis Valencia,
died from complications
caused by the novel coronavirus
on April 11. His body has
not yet made it back home to
Mexico.
For Contreras, Mixteca’s
memorial also served as an end
to a diffi cult chapter in her life.
“It’s not easy, maybe because
we can’t accept his departure
because of all that is
happening but, little by little, it
will be possible,” she said.
Additional reporting by
Paul Frangipane and Jessica
Parks
SAYING GOODBYE
Sunset Park organization hosts vigil for
loved ones lost to COVID-19 at Green-Wood
More than 100 members of Brooklyn’s Latin American community came
together on July 2 for a vigil at Green-Wood Cemetery.
Photo by Paul Frangipane
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