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McALLEN — School students, faculty and the community gathered here Friday evening to cherish two fallen Nikki Rowe warriors, Adan De La Cruz and Kevin Uriel Martinez with hundreds in attendance, showing support and unity during a time of grieving in the city.
Martinez died over the summer, while De La Cruz died this week after falling from the roof of a house Saturday, Aug. 17, at a McAllen residence. Several arrests on allegations of providing alcohol to a minor have since been made by local police.
McAllen ISD has not provided additional details on Martinez’s death.
With a sea of green flooding into the Nikki Rowe field, students, parents and even other high school football teams joined to celebrate and speak on the impact that De La Cruz and Martinez had on family and friends.
Both families were present during the memorial gathering.
Opening and closing with prayers for the families, almost every speaker that shared memories or words of encouragement cried or held back tears.
“Adan is not gone,” Edith Garza, former girlfriend of De La Cruz said. “He is in all of us and in every single one of our hearts, in our memories, in our souls. I know that there are so many things that I wish we would have gotten to do with him but he will through us. I ask that we go to every dance, every pep rally, every game … when we walk together across that stage at graduation, you’re not just walking for yourself, you’re walking for him too.”
Nadia Anzaldúa, a best friend of Martinez along with other friends, took time to speak and share a glimpse of what the sophomore was like.
“Kevin was a shy person but once you really got to know him, once you really got comfortable, he was such an outgoing person,” Anzaldúa said following the event. “He never failed to make you laugh. He would always dance with me at parties. He would be my dancing partner. He was just a good friend. He always looked out for everyone.
“I think Kevin is looking down at us and I know he feels very much appreciated that his name is out here.”
The families had a chance to share memories with the audience.
De La Cruz’s family each took a turn and reminisced how he was at home and when he was younger.
“Although it was short lived, he was a brand new tio and I’ll never forget him saying, ‘Let me carry the baby,’” older sister Alexandra De La Cruz said. “I would tell him, ‘You don’t know how to carry her,’ and he would always say, ‘carry her like a football.’”
De La Cruz’s close friends also took time to reminisce about the times they had in football and out of school and thanked his family for always welcoming them as their own.
Christian Esparza, one of De La Cruz’s best friends and Rowe senior, took the lead and shared the impact that he had on the friend group.
Initially meeting in different schools, Esparza said their friend group had a plan to attend and graduate from Nikki Rowe together.
“Those were amazing years,” he said. “So many memories … I remember our first hangout. We stayed up the whole day and night with each other … As devastated as I was at the beginning, I realized he’s such a good soul. It’s crazy the amount of people he brought together.”
Asked what is one message he will carry with him from De La Cruz, he replied, “Live life to the fullest but to always be careful. Safety is always going to be first. Tell your parents you love them, like his father said, kiss your parents every night because you don’t know when it’s your time to go.”
De La Cruz is survived by his parents, Adan De La Cruz Jr., Lourdes De La Cruz and his siblings, Christian, Alexandra and Victoria De La Cruz.
Martinez’s mother, Guadalupe Gonzalez and his older brother Randy Chavarria were present for the ceremony.
Gonzalez held her son’s no. 5 Rowe jersey tightly the whole night with tears.
Chavarria spoke of the impact that his little brother had on his family and friends.
“I didn’t get to say what I wanted today at the ceremony — I froze up, brother. It all got me,” Chavarria said on Facebook following the event. “We all miss you, little bro. I miss you. Mom misses you and all your friends miss you. You’ll always be loved and never forgotten.”
Martinez is survived by this mother, older brother, his father Urbano Martinez and his maternal grandmother Margarita Quintanilla.
To see more, view staff photographer Joel Martinez’s full photo gallery here:
Photo Gallery: Memorial service held for Rowe’s Kevin Uriel Martinez and Adan De La Cruz
