HARLINGEN — A time to mourn.
A time to remember, a time to consider, a time to recover.
The local chapter of Marked by COVID, in cooperation with several other organizations, is presenting the memorial, “COVID Victims Remembered” today.
The memorial comes in the form of a refrigerator truck with murals by local artists Matthew Flores and Alexandro Gonzalez. The mobile memorial will visit several locations today in Cameron and Hidalgo counties.
“We are so motivated to create this art memorial project, particularly as our dad was lost to COVID-19,” said Jennifer Gonzales, co-founder of the Rio Grande Valley chapter of Marked by COVID.
She and her sister Bettina co-founded the local chapter of the national organization after losing their father in August.
“It’s caused us such sadness within our family,” said Jennifer Gonzales. “My dad was a lover of art and had a smile that would light up the room. The installation will be a unique place where people can come together and grieve.”
It’s being held today in honor of National COVID-19 Memorial Day, which an increasing number of cities are acknowledging as March 1. More than 50 mayors from across the country have called for this recognition. The initiative is being spearheaded by Kristin Urquiza, founder of the national organization Marked by COVID.
The mobile memorial will visit Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen, Sunrise Mall in Brownsville, and the outlet mall in Mercedes.
At each location, passersby will have an opportunity to write the names of loved ones on a canvas on one side of the truck. The vehicle is a symbol of the trucks used as temporary morgues to store the bodies of those felled by the deadly virus.
The project is partnering with Harlingen High School and various individuals who are making felt red roses in honor of each victim here. Those roses will be placed on fish netting that will hang over the murals. The roses will make this project an installation for the Rose River Memorial, brain child of California-based artist Marcos Lutyens.
“I’m the one who is kind of orchestrating it,” said Lutyens. “I’m based on the West Coast, but I orchestrated it with Bettina and Jennifer Gonzales.”
The Rose River Memorial is a series of installations throughout the country. The installations consist of fish netting adorned with red felt roses, each representing an individual felled by COVID. Those roses are being handcrafted by individuals across the country.
There are currently several such installations in various cities, including an especially poignant presentation in Washington, D.C., along the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on the Washington Mall.
“I just basically woke up one day and thought that what was going on in the country with these COVID deaths needs to be memorialized in some way,” Lutyens said. “There was so much grief and anxiety and it had to be kind of processed.”
He first did several installations in Los Angeles and then spread out.
“I’m doing one in St. Louis and this one in Texas and we’re spreading out to other places,” Lutyens said. “We all obviously want a respite from this COVID era but we also need to acknowledge what’s happened.”
Gonzales said she hoped to have similar installations in each Valley county. Those installations would ultimately be sent to Washington, D.C., along with other Rose River Memorials, to be added to the one on the reflecting pool.
MORE INFORMATION
For the schedule of today’s “COVID Victims Remembered” visit:
www.letsreimagine.org/76768/covid-19-memorial-day-vigil
