BY FRANCISCO GUAJARDO
José Alaniz created the final Bearing Witness column, featuring portraits of four people we’ve lost during the pandemic of 2020-21.
A close friend of the Museum of South Texas History, José looked to capture the horror and complexity of this historical moment. He sought poetic guidance and landed on Edinburg native and globally renowned intellectual Gloria Anzaldúa (1942-2004).
José wrote, “This devastating passage by Anzaldúa, I felt, works best for the context of the pandemic. It has indeed seemed like a war.”
“She wrote it in Spanish,” he said.
But it’s clear COVID-19 doesn’t care about language, or race, or class or nationality. We bear witness, somos testigos , to that reality.
We have felt the loss acutely. No one has been spared. Todas las madres han perdido hijos in this cruel moment.
The pandemic has forced us to find new ways of being. How can we be different, and better, as we emerge more resilient, more empathetic, more aware?
Families, neighborhoods, communities, organizations — we’ve all taken a hit.
When Sandra Luna, a longtime employee of the museum died from COVID-19 in July 2020, the museum initiated Bearing Witness, to build an archival collection and to recognize loved ones lost.
We wanted to honor Sandra, who personified selflessness and joy.
The loss of life has mounted: a few of the losses from the museum family.
We lost Josefina “Josie” Ellard, who — with her husband Charles — had been a friend of the museum since the mid-1980s, both a fixture at our Sunday Speaker Series programs.
We lost Glynn Morgan, who was deeply moved by a philanthropic spirit, and understood the need to give.
We lost Jack Scoggins, who with his wife Tina simply gave, and gave, until they couldn’t give anymore. As long-time Heritage Associate members, they welcomed the museum community to Los Novillos, their historic South Texas ranch.
We’ve lost much more: Alberto, Heidi, Pedro and Maria Oralia appear here as a metaphor to the collective loss.
The four of them, like Sandra and Josie and Glynn and Jack, bear witness to the good spirit of the Valley. Together, we bear witness to their important legacy.
Anzaldúa quipped, may we “live to see another dawn.” Que en paz descansen todos.
Francisco Guajardo is the chief executive officer for the Museum of South Texas History at 200 N. Closner Blvd. in Edinburg. His story and José Alaniz’s comic strip conclude the ongoing series entitled Bearing Witness, in which the museum documented 24 of the Rio Grande Valley lives lost to COVID-19. For more information about the museum, visit MOSTHistory.org.
