MISSION — There were faces from tragedies around the Rio Grande Valley at the Mission Police Department’s ceremony.
Over a dozen of them were tacked on to the trunks of palm trees outside the department, framed photos showing family portraits or proud service people in uniform.
Some of the pictures were cropped out of wider shots. Another was a selfie from the front seat of a car.
Little vignettes from lives cut short.
The photos were there as part of Mission PD’s recognition of National Crime Victims Rights Week.
The people in the pictures were victims of crimes. Some who were killed in homicides, others died in drunk driving accidents.
The were balloons and booths and ribbons and, most importantly, the families those victims left behind, dozens of survivors from places like Mission, Edinburg, Alamo, Pharr and Los Fresnos.
There was no shortage of tears Thursday. The ceremony gave those families the opportunity to cry around the only people who know just what they were feeling.
“It’s a bonding between all of them,” Bobbie Espericueta, the event’s keynote speaker, said before Thursday’s ceremony. “Knowing that there’s other families like they are, that have gone through this tragic incident in their life. I see that relationship, in dealing with their tragedy and being (able) to converse on the same thing.”
Espericueta’s tragedy made national headlines two years ago. Her husband, Mission PD Cpl. Jose Luis “Speedy” Espericueta Jr. was shot and killed in 2019, leaving Bobbie to work through an almost insurmountable mound of grief.
“I have my bad days, and then I have better days,” she said. “It’s one of those things where every day is something new. I wouldn’t wish this pain on anyone, but knowing that I have this good support system and putting out this foundation for him has really helped ease that pain a lot.”
The people in the crowd Thursday were part of that support system, people who Espericueta said can relate to what she’s struggled with.
The ceremony’s hosts were part of that select group this year as well.
“We’re included in there now,” Mission Police Chief Robert Dominguez said. “With the tragic loss of Speedy and how he was gunned down, it’s different for us now. It hits home, because we obviously mourn his loss.”
The department canceled last year’s ceremony because of the pandemic, Dominguez said, and Speedy’s family didn’t get the chance to mourn him with the other victim’s families.
The department decided to add a butterfly release to the ceremony’s lineup as part of its re-inauguration.
Family members stepped up in front of the stage when the speeches were said and poetry was read.
They gingerly held out little purple envelopes, cracking them open and letting the bugs fly free into the blustery afternoon.
“I think most of us, in a way, think of the butterfly as something free, something liberating and something beautiful,” Dominguez said. “Something to remember.”
Not all of the butterflies took off right away. Some clung onto the envelopes; another crawled onto the hand of the woman holding it and stayed perched there for a few moments while she held it up in the air, just not quite ready to move on.
