Courtesy Photo Anzaldua family members gather Friday to remember their brother Oscar, who died Aug. 29, 1967, in Quang Nam, Vietnam. From left: Elizabeth Barnhart, Alida Anzaldua Ramos, Richard Anzaldua, Ramiro A. Ramirez Jr. and George Anzaldua.
RAYMONDVILLE – Ricardo Anzaldua still remembers his brother Oscar in his sharp Marine Corps uniform.
“He was my big brother,” said Ricardo, 67, recalling the brother he lost at age 12 while fighting in Vietnam.
“To lose him at that age, I looked up at him,” he said. “I looked up to all my brothers. That’s a void in my life as a kid.”
Family members gathered Friday to remember their brother who died Aug. 29, 1967, in Quang Nam, Vietnam. They met at Wing Champs, a restaurant in Raymondville of which Ramiro Ramirez, Oscar’s nephew, is co-owner.
“My aunts and uncles have always talked about him,” said Ramirez, 51. “He was loved tremendously. At the end of the day he sacrificed the ultimate sacrifice to defend his country, defend his family, and that’s something.”
Oscar’s sister Alida Anzaldua Ramos, remembers going into a short of shock when two Marines came to her family’s home in Colorado – they were migrant workers back then – and gave them the tragic news.
“I didn’t want to think about it, so I didn’t cry or anything like that,” said Ramos, 77. “But when the day came that I had to go to the funeral home, everybody had gone, and I didn’t want to go, because I didn’t want to see him like that. I wanted to remember him the way he was.”
Her aunt urged her to view the body and say her goodbyes. She did see her brother in his coffin, enclosed in a glass case.
“He was like a prince who was asleep because it was sealed with glass,” she said. “It just broke my heart because he was so handsome.”
For all of these 55 years, she has tended his grave at Raymondville Memorial Cemetery and kept his memory alive.
“I remembers he was the greatest brother,” she said. “He was generous, kind, he was always there for me.”
Now, everyone who walks into Wing Champs will know who Oscar was – and is, to so many people. An entire wall bears his name, his portrait in his Marine Corps uniform, and details about his service, along with the names of his parents, brothers and sisters.
