 | | Callaghan O'Hare for The New York Times |
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Late at night, when everything is calm, Ana Rodriguez looks at smiling pictures of her daughter, Maite Yuleana Rodriguez, 10, who died in the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting. It's the only time she has been able to grieve in the chaos of the massacre's aftermath. |
"I cry and think of her," she said. |
Maite was the only girl in her family, and was happy all her life, her mother said. |
"If there was a picture of loving," Ms. Rodriguez said, "it would be a picture of her." |
Maite was focused, ambitious and determined, her mother said. Before the pandemic, she was a straight-A student. Her grades slipped a bit during the pandemic, but she was working hard to turn that around. On the morning of the shooting, she received an award for making the school's A-B Honor Roll and won recognition for being a computer wizard. |
 | | Maite Yuleana Rodriguez |
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Since kindergarten, Maite had dreamed of becoming a marine biologist. One day she surprised Ms. Rodriguez by announcing that she wanted to go to Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, after overhearing someone talking about the marine biology program there. Ms. Rodriguez said she had hoped to take Maite to Corpus Christi and show her the school. "We never got the opportunity to go," she said. |
Whenever Maite put her mind to something, she did it, Ms. Rodriguez said. When a friend gave her a toy sewing machine, she researched how to use it — and fix it — on YouTube. She began to make pillows for her mother, stepfather and little brother with motifs of bees, honeycombs and cowboys. |
"I want the world to know she was my absolute best friend," Ms. Rodriguez said. "We did everything together. She was charismatic, loving, ambitious, competitive, she was self-driven, focused, she was a fighter and my best friend. She was my sweet girl." |
Maite was one of the 21 people — 19 students and two teachers — who were killed by a gunman on Tuesday at Robb Elementary School. The other students were Jackie Cazares and Eliahna "Ellie" Garcia, who were 9; Nevaeh Alyssa Bravo, Makenna Lee Elrod, Jose Flores, Uziyah Garcia, Amerie Jo Garza, Xavier Lopez, Jayce Carmelo Luevanos, Tess Marie Mata, Alithia Haven Ramirez, Annabelle Rodriguez, Alexandria Aniyah Rubio, Layla Salazar, Jailah Silguero, Eliahana Torres and Rojelio Torres, who were 10; and Miranda Gail Mathis, 11. The teachers were Irma Garcia, 48, and Eva Mireles, 44. |
Dreams of becoming a lawyer |
Alexandria Aniyah Rubio, a 10-year-old known as Lexi, was an honor roll student at Robb Elementary School who loved TikTok, dreamed of being a lawyer and was "the student every teacher wants," said her mother, Kimberly Rubio. |
 | | Alexandria Aniyah Rubio |
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On Tuesday morning, Lexi, a fourth grader, had just received a good citizenship award and an honor roll award for getting all A's. Later that day, all of her family's joy was ripped away, Ms. Rubio said. Lexi was among the 21 people killed — 19 students and two teachers — at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in the country's deadliest school shooting in a decade. |
"We talked about women's rights, and she was a budding feminist," said Ms. Rubio, 33, her voice breaking at times. |
Lexi's parents said they had waited until the last moment to name her, deciding on something that would stand out when called at a high school graduation. |
"She was my baby," Ms. Rubio said. "I don't want anybody else to go through this." |
Layla Salazar was an energetic girl who had just won three first-place ribbons for athletics at school and was already planning summer sleepovers with her friends at her grandparents' house, her grandfather Vincent Salazar said. |
"My granddaughter was one that loved everything about life, and they took it away from her," Mr. Salazar said in an interview in front of his home in Uvalde on Thursday. "They took her away from us. How do you mend a broken heart from a family as close as we had?" |
 | | Layla Salazar |
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Relatives from across the country have come to Uvalde to be with the family as they grieve, Mr. Salazar said, filling the home after the loss of a little girl whose absence could not be felt more strongly. |
"Layla, to our family, was the heart of our life." |
When asked his name by a reporter, Mr. Salazar paused. |
"I was Grandpa — I was Layla Salazar's grandpa. That was what she called me, was Grandpa." |
Irma Garcia, a teacher of more than two decades, was known as a steadfast optimist in her family. She would crack jokes at gatherings in Uvalde, Texas, sing her favorite classic rock tunes during parties and help her nephew, John Martinez, with homework. |
"She's always been optimistic about everything, and just so loving with the people in her life," said Mr. Martinez, 21, a student at Texas State University. |
On Tuesday, he and his family had gathered to process the news from the authorities: Ms. Garcia had been killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. |
 | | Irma Garcia |
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When the authorities went inside the classroom moments after the shooting, Mr. Martinez said, they had "found her body there, embracing children in her arms pretty much until her last breath." |
She had treated her students as if they were her own children, he said, so it had been easy for loved ones to possibly "picture her putting her life on the line." |
Ms. Garcia — or Tia Garcia, as Mr. Martinez referred to his aunt in Spanish — was "like a second mom" to her nephews and students, he said. |
"She brings a joy and a light to the room." |
Her husband of 24 years, Joe Garcia, died two days after the shooting of a heart attack. He had gone to her memorial on Thursday morning to drop off flowers, ruptured by the grief of losing the love of his life, Mr. Martinez said. |
'They just want their sister back' |
Jailah Silguero, 10, was the youngest of four children, the "baby" of her family, her father said. She loved going to school and seeing her friends. Jailah had told her father, Jacob Silguero, 35, on Monday night that she wanted to stay home on Tuesday. It was uncharacteristic of her, and by morning, Mr. Silguero said, she seemed to have forgotten about it. She got dressed and went to school as usual. |
"I can't believe this happened to my daughter, my baby," he said. |
He added, "It's always been a fear of mine to lose a kid." |
 | | Jailah Silguero |
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Mr. Silguero and the family were getting ready to go to a funeral home on Wednesday after having spent hours at the SSGT Willie de Leon Civic Center the day before waiting for information about Jailah. Officials asked the family to give a DNA sample using a swab. |
"I figured after the DNA swab test, it was something bad," he said. "About an hour later, they called to confirm that she had passed." |
Jailah's siblings are taking it hard, Mr. Silguero said: "They just want their sister back." |
Jailah Silguero was among 21 people — 19 children and two adults — killed in the massacre on Tuesday. |
Read the rest of the story here. |
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