{"id":36610,"date":"2025-11-03T23:21:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T23:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/36610\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T23:21:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T23:21:16","slug":"s-f-residents-share-loved-ones-stories-at-the-festival-of-the-altars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/36610\/","title":{"rendered":"S.F. residents share loved ones’ stories at the Festival of the Altars"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mission<\/p>\n

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Last year, Veronica Estila\u2019s father, Jorgito, passed away at the age of 79 after a bad fall. He had been in fragile health: First a stroke, then a brain tumor diagnosis. The family hoped he would recover when doctors saw that his tumor had not advanced, but then he suffered the fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After his sudden death, Estila prayed for a sign that Jorgito was still watching over her. It appeared one night, she said: a frog in her San Jose bathroom that looked like a coqu\u00ed, the fingernail-sized, yellowish-brown frog native to her father\u2019s childhood home, Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n

While life brought Jorgito from the island to San Francisco, he had always kept Puerto Rico in his heart. A Puerto Rico flag rested in front of Jorgito\u2019s ofrenda that Veronica built for the Dia de los Muertos celebration at Potrero del Sol Park in the Mission District.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"AThe First Exposures altar honoring the ancestors of the program\u2019s mentees. Photo by Sage Rios Mace. <\/p>\n

Jorgito\u2019s was just one of more than 20 ofrendas that were on display on Sunday morning for the Dia de los Muertos Festival of the Altars, an annual all-day event hosted by the Marigold Project, a non-profit that supports healing within the Latine and indigenous communities.\u00a0Months ahead of Dia de los Muertos, Project Marigold offered online sign-ups<\/a> for community members to reserve a spot at the park to exhibit their ofrendas. On Sunday, hundreds gathered to see the ofrendas that snaked through the expanse of the park along a paved pathway. Most of the altars were adorned with marigolds, papel picado, candles and framed family photos. One ofrenda rose above the others, some 7-feet-tall, with bright-blue cloth panels and a few photos at its base. The towering ofrenda was built by mentees of First Exposures, the Mission-based non-profit that runs a photography mentorship program for teens, who had chosen to honor their ancestors.<\/p>\n

Jorgito Estila<\/p>\n

Veronica Estila\u2019s altar featured photos of her father, Jorgito and his sister-in-law, Irene Rivera who passed away four months after Jorgito. A cross of yellow lily flowers lay on the ground in front of an elevated altar which displayed photos of Jorgito, a Home Depot bucket and a red 49ers beanie. In one photo, Jorgito flashes a large smile from where he sits at a slot machine in a casino. In another photo, Jorgito\u2019s sister sits outside, smiling in a red dress, her dark hair pulled back from her face.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AJorgito Estila\u2019s ofrenda at the Festival of the Altars in the Mission District. Photo by Sage Rios Mace.<\/p>\n

Growing up, Estila\u2019s father was the anchor of the family, she said. He worked long days and was skilled in woodworking. He also had a \u201cmusical gift.\u201d Though he had no formal training, she said, he played the bongos and \u201cwould just pick instruments up.\u201d Oftentimes, he also improvised with kitchen utensils, like a cheese grater, for in-house salsa sessions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scrolling through her phone, Estila shared a video of her elderly father in a khaki fedora, drumming on bongos as the reggaeton song \u201cOtra\u201d by Pitbull and Don Omar blared from patio speakers. In another, Jorgito danced beside the kitchen counter, shaking his hands and hips as she laughed behind the camera. \u201cHe did it all up until his last stroke where he started losing mobility,\u201d she said. When he could no longer play, her uncles stepped in to make music for him instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig Tone\u201d<\/p>\n

A few steps from Estila\u2019s ofrenda, another Puerto Rican family gathered around a memorial for their son, Jose Antonio Echevarria, better known as \u201cBig Tone,\u201d who passed away at 56. Besides a couple of years in Puerto Rico with his grandmother, he grew up in the city\u2019s Mission District on Shotwell Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Leaning against a tree, Tone\u2019s gold basketball uniform glittered beside a pair of sneakers and a large photo of Tone smiling. Across two tables, flowers and sweet treats were laid out, beside an array of photos showing Tone\u2019s childhood spent with friends in the Mission, fishing trips, and his basketball career. Gathered at the ofrenda, were Tone\u2019s parents and sister, his neighbors whom he considered family, and his childhood best friend, Tony Lucero.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jose Antonio Echevarria\u2019s basketball jersey on display at the Festival of the Altars in the Mission District. Photo by Sage Rios Mace. <\/p>\n

The former semi-pro basketball player traveled worldwide to play for Puerto Rico and won gold medals in the Pan American Games in Colombia. He was known for his tall 6-foot-8 frame, his big personality and even bigger smile, said Lucero.<\/p>\n

The pair met at age four and \u201cinstantly hit it off.\u201d They grew up together and spent countless afternoons playing on the street with their neighbors. \u201cHe could talk to anybody, no matter the type of person,\u201d Lucero said of his best friend.\u00a0 \u201cHe was the life of the party.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lucero pointed to a framed photo of himself, Echevarria and another childhood friend. \u201cThat was our little group and we did everything together.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even when Echevarria left to pursue his basketball career, traveling for long stretches of time, they stayed close. \u201cI couldn\u2019t see myself growing up with a better best friend,\u201d Lucero said. \u201cThat\u2019s my brother.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aurora and Gary<\/p>\n

Across the park, Veronica Garcia was sitting beside the ofrenda of three-year-old Aurora Vixen DuHadway, the daughter of her best friend.\u00a0 \u201cMy niece in every way except blood,\u201d Garcia said of the child who tragically passed away in an accident in 2017.<\/p>\n

\"AThe ofrenda honoring the life of Aurora Vixen DuHadway at the Festival of the Altars. Photo by Sage Rios Mace.<\/p>\n

Beside Garcia, a photo of a toddler with white-blond hair and bright blue eyes smiled up at her. The table was decorated in pink \u2014 Aurora\u2019s favorite color \u2014 and adorned with dragonflies and small dolls. Aurora loved gardening and wearing bows in her hair, Garcia said, \u201cespecially for her dance classes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was the reason I started doing the ofrendas,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cI needed to do something with my grief because it was so huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aurora\u2019s ofrenda was not the only one that Garcia built for Sunday\u2019s festival. Across two tables, Garcia shared photos of many loved ones and even pets who had passed away.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On one table she had displayed about a dozen frames \u2013 each labeled with the name of the person who had passed. \u201cIn 2022 I lost six people within three months,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n

One photo showed Garcia embracing a man in a tight hug on a sunny beach. The frame read \u201cGary\u201d with \u201cFianc\u00e9\u201d printed on the bottom half. The pair met online through a mutual friend and though they lived apart \u2014 Garcia in Northern California and Gary in Southern California \u2014 the two fell in love through emails, text messages and late-night phone calls before finally meeting in person.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Garcia pointed to the photo of the couple on the beach. \u201cThat picture is from our first date in person,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was an amazing date because we already had such a strong connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two were never actually married; they had broken up about nine months before their planned wedding date, but they remained friends until Gary\u2019s death. Garcia had visited him every day in the hospital after he became ill from a tooth infection. She was in the room with him when he passed. \u201cGrief is very hard. It can be debilitating at times and overwhelming,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cBut creating the ofrendas helps me bring their memories back.\u201d<\/p>\n

We’re more than halfway there!<\/p>\n

We’ve raised 2\/3 of our $300,000 goal to cover immigration for the next three years of Trump’s term! More than 500 of you have stepped up since September \u2014 an incredible feat of community support.<\/p>\n

We are humbled. We still have a bit to go: Donate below if you want to keep Mission Local in the courts, reporting on ICE’s actions in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

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