Friends say DTES homicide victim Cristobal-Esteban was beloved, valued
Credit to Author: Nick Eagland| Date: Sun, 05 Jan 2020 03:23:02 +0000
When Jesus Cristobal-Esteban died after a New Year’s Day assault in Oppenheimer Park, he was surrounded by loved ones who played marimba music at his bedside.
Packed into a room Thursday at Vancouver General Hospital, more than a dozen people told him, as he lay unconscious, how much they loved him and would miss him — and how grateful they were for the legacy he left behind for the Latino and Downtown Eastside communities.
A tear streamed down Cristobal-Esteban’s cheek before he slipped away, his loved ones said. Two Anglican priests celebrated the Last Rites as he took his final breaths.
His was a “remarkably peaceful death,” said Father Matthew Johnson of the St. James’ Anglican Church in Vancouver. “Rarely is any human being surrounded by so many people.”
“We kept on saying, there are people who love you,” said Ingrid Cruz, executive director of the Watari Counselling & Support Services Society.
“I said the names of everybody who had asked me to tell him how much they loved him. He wasn’t conscious but I believe he was listening to us.”
Cristobal-Esteban was 62.
Jesus Cristobal-Esteban putting up decorations in the Oppenheimer Park activity centre for the Day of the Dead in 2010.
He left behind a longtime partner, Darlene, cousins in Surrey and Kelowna, and family in Guatemala, Cruz said.
After news of Cristobal-Esteban’s death spread, many who knew him felt he had been portrayed in the media as little more than the victim of Vancouver’s first homicide of 2020.
The truth, they insisted, is that he had been a glowing presence in the Downtown Eastside and deserved to be acknowledged for it.
To them, he was a best friend, colleague, volunteer, migrant rights activist, gardener and farmer. He was a teacher, soccer organizer, man of faith, jokester, dancer, musician, early-riser and tortilla-maker. He fought for the rights and freedoms of the hungry, sick and poor.
On Saturday, close to 40 people gathered at the Cottonwood Community Garden in Strathcona — Cristobal-Esteban’s favourite place to garden — to talk about his life and chant “Viva Jesus!” in his memory. Many more sent emails to a reporter sharing parts of his story.
The turnout and response was a testament to Cristobal-Esteban’s impact before his assault at the park he once frequented with old friends.
Friends of murder victim Jesus Cristobal-Esteban mourn his passing at a vigil at the Cottonwood Community Garden in Vancouver on Jan. 4, 2020. Cristobal-Esteban was assaulted at Oppenheimer Park on Jan. 1 and died several days later. Police are investigating his death.
“We’re here because we love Jesus,” said his gardening partner Ofelia Figuero, through a translator.
“As a human being, he was very brave. We learned so much from him. He knew how to plant, he knew how to look after the garden and as well, he was just a great friend to all of us. We are so sad.”
Cristobal-Esteban fled Guatemala in the early 1990s when his community was devastated by the civil war and genocide of Maya civilians like him. He arrived in Vancouver in 1993 and planted deep roots in the Downtown Eastside, becoming a permanent resident of Canada in August 2019.
Reverend Emilie Smith of the St. Barnabas Anglican Church in New Westminster said Cristobal-Esteban was a member of the Kanjobal group and spoke that language first, but also spoke Spanish and English.
Jesus Cristobal-Esteban with his best friend, the late Rodolfo Marroquin, at the Elliot Marroquin Community Soccer Tournament in 2008.
Though Cristobal-Esteban lived in the Downtown Eastside, he insisted on attending her Spanish services in New Westminster, sometimes travelling by scooter in the snow.
“For years we did a Latino breakfast on Monday mornings,” Smith said. “No matter how early I headed out there, he would be sitting on the steps of the church before I got there. He ended up calling himself my ‘sacristan.’”
Father Johnson said Cristobal-Esteban was received into the communion in Vancouver in 2012. He would always arrive to services early to support priests but also to take some time to quietly pray before the altar alone.
“His service and involvement in the community was, I believe, an extension of working out of his very deep faith,” Johnson said. “(He) is the story of that person who came through enormous adversity, pulled himself together and gave back to the community.”
Friends of murder victim Jesus Cristobal-Esteban (pictured) mourn his passing at a vigil at the Cottonwood Community Garden in Vancouver on Jan. 4, 2020. Cristobal-Esteban was assaulted at Oppenheimer Park on New Year’s Day and died several days later. Police are investigating his death.
Sarah Godoy said she met Cristobal-Esteban in Oppenheimer Park when she was organizing events there for the Carnegie Centre. He always wanted to help and was the first to arrive and last leave.
She’ll never forget his “warm, smiling eyes,” unwavering grin and ability to find the humour in anything, she said.
“His contribution was so huge and he was such a fixture in the community,” she said.
Friends said Cristobal-Esteban’s life was not easy. He struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder following the atrocities in Guatemala. He battled alcohol addiction but never missed a day of work or let anyone down because of it, they said.
He demonstrated how a person could overcome incredible adversity, said Michael Ableman, executive director of Sole Food Farms, by phone.
Ableman said he aspired to be more like Cristobal-Esteban, who came to work for his firm about eight years ago.
“This is a person who left his home country during the civil war, moved to Canada, a foreign land, and the hardship did not end there,” he said.
“Yet if you met him on a day-to-day basis and saw that smile — his presentation to anyone around him completely belied the suffering and challenges that he has gone through.”
Jesus Cristobal-Esteban at a Guatemala support rally in September 2018 with a sign reading, “Whoever said education is expensive doesn’t know the price of ignorance.”
Oswaldo Godoy said Cristobal-Esteban’s commitment to the community served as an important reminder of the contributions of Latino immigrants in Canada. Cristobal-Esteban tirelessly helped others, including through volunteer work as a soccer organizer, he said.
“I remember him and I will miss him, and I’m very glad that a lot of people are gathering here today and saying good stuff about him,” Godoy said.
“At the same time, it is about our community as well. We are something else. We are not just people doing bad stuff. The things that some people do, yeah, it’s true. But that is a very small minority. The big majority of people are hard-working people and giving more than taking away.”
Vancouver police said Saturday that their homicide investigation was ongoing and no one was in custody. Anyone with information is asked to call detectives at 604-717-2500 or CrimeStoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477.
Meantime, Cristobal-Esteban’s friends plan to install a plaque in his memory on a bench in Oppenheimer Park and rename part of the Cottonwood Community Garden after him.
Watari plans to hold a gathering in Cristobal-Esteban’s memory on Monday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 200-678 East Hastings St.
The St. James’ Anglican Church will be holding a Requiem Mass soon.
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