Prayers, tears and marimba for 62-year-old killed at Oppenheimer Park
Credit to Author: Nick Eagland| Date: Sun, 02 Feb 2020 02:04:28 +0000
Before the Guatemalan civil war, the genocide, the trauma and the tragic Oppenheimer Park assault, Jesus Cristobal-Esteban was baptized as an innocent newborn, the beginning of a lifetime of deep faith.
On Saturday, 62 years later, loved ones held his funeral in Vancouver, a beautiful community requiem mass at the St. James’ Anglican Church on Cordova Street where he spent much of his time.
More than 150 people packed the pews to sing and pray their hearts out for Cristobal-Esteban, a beloved volunteer, activist and community member.
Cristobal-Esteban died in hospital surrounded by friends on Jan. 2 after he was assaulted while visiting the park on New Year’s Day. The park has been a focal point of poverty and despair in Vancouver since homeless people formed an encampment there in October 2018.
Friends, family and community members gathered Saturday at St. James’ Anglican Church in East Vancouver to pay last respects during a memorial services for Jesus Cristobal-Esteban, who died on Jan. 2. (Francis Georgian photo/PNG)
Cristobal-Esteban’s funeral started with a procession from the park just one block from the church that featured a marching marimba duo playing the comforting music of his birthplace.
He fled Guatemala in the early 1990s when his community was devastated by the civil war and genocide of Maya peoples like him. He arrived in Vancouver in 1993, planted deep roots in the Downtown Eastside and became a permanent resident of Canada last August.
Mayan Elder Alejandro Ruiz told mourners that Cristobal-Esteban was among thousands of displaced Guatemalans who wound up in Canada, leaving behind family who had moved to the highlands to work in the coffee plantations.
Ruiz said it was difficult for them to arrive in a country so different but Cristobal-Esteban nurtured his Mayan culture here and shared it with others through gardening, language and music.
“Jesus gave some examples to us,” Ruiz said. “That seed that he planted, I think each of you will carry it in the future.”
Ingrid Mendez, executive director of the Watari Counselling & Support Services Society, said she was fortunate to have known Cristobal-Esteban for two decades.
A memorial service was held Saturday at St. James’ Anglican Church in East Vancouver for the late Jesus Cristobal-Esteban. (Francis Georgian photo/PNG)
“We’re certainly going to miss Jesus for many things,” Mendez said during an emotional speech. “But one thing that we’re going to miss for sure is his big smile, that big smile that he gave to everyone, everyone that is here.”
Mendez said Cristobal-Esteban was always happy at Watari, Oppenheimer Park and Sole Food Street Farms where he worked.
“He planted not only flowers, not only vegetables for us to eat, he planted love,” she said. “He touched every single heart out there, he knew everybody and everybody knew him. I get phone calls, emails from people I didn’t know saying how much they miss him and how much they love him.
“We all love him very much and we will continue loving him because we have all of these memories with us every single day. So, gracias, Jesus, por todo.”
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.” (Murray Bush photo)
The Reverend Mother Emilie Smith of the St. Barnabas Anglican Church was one of two priests who celebrated the Last Rites in Cristobal-Esteban’s hospital room as he slipped away Jan. 2.
“We are all changed because Jesus died. We probably experience that change as loss. I know I do,” she said.
“How can it be that the kitchen, the garden, the park, the church, how can these things just go on without that laugh, without that scolding, without that faith, without the trouble he caused us, without that commitment he lived in his blood and in his bones?”
The Reverend Father Matthew Johnson of St. James’ Anglican Church said Cristobal-Esteban not only had faith, he acted on it and served God.
“When it comes to the anguish that we have felt in the face of our brother’s death, so sudden, so violent, so utterly senseless, it is difficult to find the right words,” said Johnson, who was at Cristobal-Esteban’s side when he died.
“But what is important is that God knows our anguish, God understands — the God who chooses not to remain at a distance from us and from our world, but who came to share life and our journey with us, that same God who lost his own son Jesus Christ, also to a violent death.”
Cristobal-Esteban regular visited Oppenheimer Park to spend time with friends, and worked in the community garden and kitchen there for many years.
On Jan. 1, a man asked Cristobal-Esteban to give him a swig of his beer and he refused, friends said. The man, who did not live in the encampment, then violently struck Cristobal-Esteban, who fell and hit his head.
Byron Cruz, also with Watari, said in an interview Saturday that many people are angry over the senseless act of violence but also frustrated by the continuing homelessness at the park.
Cruz said the Latino community used to be spend lots of time there. Cristobal-Esteban, from the Indigenous Kanjobal group, liked to cook for local First Nations people, he said.
“We want to have that community garden back, because it was destroyed,” Cruz said. “We want to have that community kitchen back because that dynamic could probably prevent what happened to Jesus.”
Cruz said Oppenheimer Park used to be a place where people could play soccer, baseball and basketball, pass time on benches with friends, eat a free warm meal and watch their children play. It has become far too dangerous for that now.
“We recognize that housing should be the priority, the first line of the solution,” Cruz said.
“The second line of the solution is to put together a multi-sectorial network of people because the community at Oppenheimer is not just one community. Now, we have people who are living at the park and the priority is them, in terms of finding housing with dignity, but the other line that is important is that you should be able to go to the park and enjoy the park, as we used to.”
On Friday, the park board announced that B.C. Housing contracted PHS Community Services Society for two months to provide outreach and support services for the homeless people in the park, with a goal of finding everyone suitable housing.
On Saturday, Const. Tanya Visintin of the Vancouver police said that the homicide investigation is continuing.
Cristobal-Esteban was buried Saturday afternoon at the Surrey Centre Cemetery on Old McLellan Road.
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