In two days they were all going on vacation, but they ended up in the morgue: 19 children and two of their graduate teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, are the latest innocent victims of America of easy guns.
Uziyah Garcia, 9, was the youngest: "The sweetest child, and not because he was my grandson," said Manny Renfro, the grandfather, in tears.
Irma Garcia, a teacher for 23 years, was 43. With her colleague Eva Mireles, who taught at Robb since 17, she
shielded
the little students with her body - the police reported - and paid with her life for this act of courage.
She leaves four orphans.
A Spoon River of broken futures when it is still too early to tell their lives has emerged in the hours after the massacre.
Eliahana Cruz Torres, photographed in the baseball uniform, yesterday she wanted to stay at home, but her family forced her to go to school, said great-grandfather Adolfo Cruz: today no one forgives him.
Amerie Jo Garza, on the other hand, had her cell phone with her and the presence of mind to use it when Sebastian Ramos, the killer, broke into her class saying that "they were all going to die".
Amerie
called 911
and Ramos, "instead of picking up her phone, he shot her at point blank range", said her grandmother Berlinda: "She was sitting next to her best friend, and the friend came out covered in her blood."
Many of the children killed in the umpteenth massacre of innocents on American soil were in unrecognizable conditions: the authorities asked the families for
DNA
to help identify them.
About 600 children, 90 percent Hispanic, attended Robb: the majority came from disadvantaged families.
Jayce Carmelo Luevanos and Jailah Nicole Silguero, two cousins, died together.
Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez, Alithia Ramirez, Miranda Mathis, Ellie Lugo, Rojelio Torres, Nevaeh Bravo, Makenna Elrod, Alexandria 'Lexi' Aniyah Rubio, Maite Yuleana, Tess Marie Mata, Xavier Lopez: the series of portraits of pain continues, illustrated by photos smiles of children and grandchildren that families will never embrace again.
Many of them, such as Amerie and Annabell, Alexandria and Xavier, who couldn't wait to move on to middle school, had received a diploma that morning for the good grades they had received during the year: the pride of that moment, immortalized. by the photographer, it is the image that will always remember them.