With ‘seis minutos de silencio,’ an East Baltimore church memorializes Key Bridge victims

Guitar hymns and prayers echoed inside an East Baltimore church Monday night on either side of six minutes of silence, one for each of the victims of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

Behind flags and communal grief, a few hundred Marylanders took to the streets after a prayer service to march around the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, home to the city’s largest Catholic congregation with Spanish services.

“They worked to maintain the bridge. If they didn’t go to work, nobody could cross the bridge. They literally gave their life for us,” Vilma Veliz, who held the Guatemalan flag at the front of the procession, said in Spanish.

Veliz said she was family friends with 26-year-old Dorian Castillo Cabrera and José Mynor López, two of the victims also part of a tight community of Guatemalan immigrants surrounding the church in Canton.

Divers have recovered the bodies of Castillo Cabrera; 38-year-old Maynor Suazo Sandoval, originally from Honduras; and 35-year-old Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, originally from Mexico.

The bodies of 49-year-old Miguel Luna, originally from El Salvador; Carlos Hernandez from Mexico; and López, who was in his 30s, are still missing.

Luna, who was from the town of California in El Salvador, immigrated to the United States about 19 years ago and lived in Glen Burnie. He was a husband, a father of three and a grandfather.

Hernandez Fuentes, a devout Christian and foreman of the crew, was born in Mexico, lived in Essex, and left behind a wife and four children.

Suazo Sandoval immigrated from Azacualpa, Honduras, more than 17 years ago. He had a wife and two children and lived in Owings Mills.

Castillo Cabrera was from San Luis, Petén, in Guatemala and lived in Dundalk. Friends say he had a joyous sense of humor.

Lopez immigrated from Guatemala over 19 years ago, lived in Dundalk, and left behind a wife and four children.

Hernandez was a native of the Mexican state of Mihoacán. and a relative of Hernandez Fuentes, whose brother-in-law Adrian Julio Cervantes was rescued and survived after a cargo ship crashed into a support pillar and toppled the bridge into the Patapsco River.

“Tonight made me very happy as the pastor of a predominantly Latino church, to see the members supporting other members and community. It’s important we have one another,” Father Ako Walker, Sacred Heart’s pastor, said. “When all the hype dies down, the people are still here.”

Last weekend, a few members of the church built a memorial to the victims with crosses pinned with neon vests and flags of their homelands standing over work helmets. During a candlelight vigil, community members took turns shouldering the platform.

“Two friends and I made it last Saturday,” congregation member Victor Ramos said in Spanish. “It’s a sign the whole community is together with the families.”

Led by Mexican, Guatemalan, Salvadorian and Honduran flags, the procession started at the church and turned two blocks up South Highland Avenue before turning onto Eastern Avenue and back down South Conkling Street to the starting point.

The group, which filled a city block, stopped periodically between songs to pray for one specific victim. Walker said the procession is similar to a Good Friday tradition in which the whole congregation takes turns lifting a platform representing the burial of Jesus.

“We’ve done processions for Holy Week and other religious events, but never like this,” Ino Velasques, who typically sings at Mass and led the prayers during the procession, said in Spanish. “Color, race, nationality, countries of origin don’t matter. We represent one united community.”

Laura Hargrove, director of interstate outreach for the governor’s office, spoke during the prayer service. Archbishop of Baltimore William Lori gave a homily before Walker introduced the six minutes of silence.

“It’s so sad, all of this. They were working to improve the bridge that all of us use,” Miriam Medrano, a church member originally from Peru who carried the Mexican flag during the procession, said in Spanish. “It’s important we are all together in these moments of sadness.”