Crowd hug a widower from El Paso

Antonio Basco has been crying for the death of his wife for two weeks. On August 3 he went to the Walmart in El Paso (Texas, USA) and there he left his life, shot dead by Patrick Crusius with 21 other people.

He had shared with Margie Reckard, 63, two decades of his life and having no children, he was afraid to face the funeral alone in his memory. To mitigate his pain, the funeral home webpage spread that the act was open to the public and that "everyone would be welcome."

His message was shared to such an extent that he received more than 10,000 responses and 900 floral arrangements to accompany his partner's coffin, according to The New York Times. Some 700 people wrapped Basco last Friday at the memorial for a woman they had never met under a heat of almost 38 ° C.

The overwhelming show of affection meant that the service, which included a mariachi band and singing, was relocated to a larger facility.

"This is amazing," Basco acknowledged excitedly, who cried when he greeted the unexpected attendees. They also included her children, the result of a previous marriage.

He will always be remembered, too, for being the man who left flowers every day at the memorial to the victims in front of the Walmart store where the shooting took place.

Flowers and mariachis for the victims

In the US border city of El Paso, the victims of the racist attack against Latinos from two weeks ago are still being honored, as if each of them were part of the same family , under the persistent threat of hate rhetoric.

To the Cielo Vista shopping center, where on August 3, 22 people were killed and 24 others wounded for having a Latin appearance, the residents spontaneously brought flowers, balloons, flags of the US, Mexico and Texas , and signs with the same killing day. messages against racism.

People go daily to the place, where the fresh flowers coexist with the withered by the desert sun along some fences behind the mall parking lot.

There are those who perform the ancestral dances of the Matachines, sing with a mariachi the songs of the Mexican composer Juan Gabriel, cry for those they met when they were already dead, or come to pray and leave their messages.

In all this pain and tragedy the best of the spirit of El Paso has emerged strongly.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project