{"id":378563,"date":"2026-07-19T10:28:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T10:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/378563\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T10:28:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T10:28:32","slug":"houston-is-an-immigrant-city-and-lorenzo-salgado-araujo-was-one-of-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/378563\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston is an immigrant city and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was one of us"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Community<\/p>\n

Community members left flowers, candles, photographs and handwritten messages at a memorial near the site where\u00a0Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was shot and killed by an ICE officer in Houston.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Raquel Natalicchio\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo must have loved ranchera music.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As mourners, many wearing shades of blue at the family’s request, made the slow procession to view his body<\/a> at Forest Park\u00a0Lawndale Funeral Home on Thursday, songs by ranchera legend Antonio Aguilar played on repeat. The blazing trumpets and weeping violins of the mariachis told stories about a homeland left behind.<\/p>\n

This is the music of Mexico’s beating heart. Unapologetic and heartfelt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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This was Salgado’s story.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 52-year-old husband, father and homebuilder was fatally shot on July 7 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer as he\u00a0drove his construction crew to a Houston job site.\u00a0<\/p>\n

TIMELINE:\u00a0What happened before and after the fatal Houston ICE shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo<\/a><\/p>\n

For more than three decades,\u00a0Araujo lived in this East End community, worked sunrise to sunset to build a construction business and put his boys through college. Now men, they stood strong and proud as mourners passed by. They shook hands and received blessings and condolences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Houston stretches its arms to welcome people from anywhere, and it was Salgado’s home. He did what so many come here to do \u2014 build a life, raise a family, find a path to make their dreams come true and carve out memories along the way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More than any major city, Houston\u00a0is where the American dream can take root deep into the soil. Families come here with little more than a prayer and find acceptance in community, which gives them courage to spread their wings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

TO HOUSTON, WITH JOY:\u00a0A newsletter for a city that’s never simple<\/a><\/p>\n

Headlines across the nation tell how Salgado died tragically along a street in the community he called home. But few stories will share how he lived, that by all accounts he was a good person and father.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the funeral home, that was evident. This was not a media spectacle that\u00a0high-profile funerals with dignitaries and celebrities often become. It was a celebration of a family man who was loved. Cell phones even\u00a0were prohibited so that mourners could be fully immersed in the moment.<\/p>\n

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Memories of a good life played in photos across two TV\u00a0screens.<\/p>\n

There, Salgado appeared as a young, dignified man in a denim shirt. In another image he’s holding his sons and in another he appears with horses in the mountains. One image even captures him laughing with pie on his face.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those who spew derogatory\u00a0names\u00a0at people like\u00a0Araujo are filled with so much hate that they are blind. They can’t see that Houston is the melting pot of cultures. That here, many\u00a0people may be\u00a0different at first glance,\u00a0but connected in their values for hard work, family and community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This city, more than any other, understands that the path to being an American citizen is not easy, but often winding and very long. Houston\u2019s strength is its ability to pull in people like\u00a0Salgado, make them feel like they belong\u00a0and then marvel at the lives and loves and families they build.<\/p>\n

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Before Salgado’s casket was closed, his sons stood in front their father. Ronaldo Salgado, the older son, bent over his body and held on tight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To belong is also to be someone worth holding onto, one last time.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Community members left flowers, candles, photographs and handwritten messages at a memorial near the site where\u00a0Lorenzo Salgado Araujo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-378563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}