While some are celebrating Mexican Independence or others are having an endless round of tequila or tacos, nachos and Lord knows what form of Mexican cuisine people enjoy, there are others today in which we celebrate the life of someone who held (and will forever hold) a dear place in our lives. That was Hector Martinez.
Today some of us got to say our farewells, paid our respects but some of us also, in our hearts and minds, celebrated his life. Life is the operative word. The state of shock I felt at 1am when our old buddy Ismerai from Eugenio Maria de Hostos I.S. 318 broke me the news was like a sudden jolt into my system. I remember dropping my cell phone at the sight of the date of his memorial. I was meaning to, at some point, message him to meet up in Tampa and catch up, given that less than two years ago, we found each other on social media and found out we were both living in the same city.
Some people think of junior high school as merely the stage of abrupt puberty, raging hormones, bullies and friendships that may just vanish as soon as high school begins. For me, Hector was one of the few that I considered a friend during the years of me being bullied around, pushed around and called names. Him, Ismerai and I were the Three Amigos — just talking trash, comic books, anime, wrestling, silly teacher crushes and everything.
Last I had chatted with him, he was having the time of his life, doing his thing and the main thing that she showed, as his family and closer friends remembered, is that he was the symbol of positivity, love, acceptance, hope and life. He embodied that, his face glowed that message. Just like that, from out of nowhere, he walked away from this realm and into the next.
To me, the reason this hits a little hard is because ten years ago in June, I lost my youngest sibling, Bernice. In her request for in the event of her passing, she asked that nobody wore black — because she wanted all of us to be happy and positive. Hector, with how he lived life, was sending us that same message.
This was partially why I didn’t button my black shirt all the way up — I wanted a bit of my Goku t-shirt to stick out. Sometimes when death arrives, we are stricken with despair, sadness, depression, angst and sorrow and in turn it strangles and puts on pause the ability of emitting joy. Perhaps through this funeral, God wanted me to see that I need to let go of the fear of death and to start embracing life.
It all sounds like one weird oxymoron — celebrating life coming from death but then again, when has the universe ever stuck to the script, letter by letter? Hardly, unless it suited the universe’s need to do something. The world today is so mangled by negativity and fear to the point that it looks like a colored canvas that has lost all of its saturated hues and tints — absent of its vibrancy.
In his honor, for the sake of our planet’s existence, let’s live in love. Let’s breathe positivity in this world that is suffocating in negativity. It is time we overcome evil with good and tame the unruly beast of despair.
