Mexican town, U.S. troops mourn Marine who died in Iraq

<p>Hundreds of residents from this bean- and chile-growing town thronged around a small church on Sunday to remember a Mexican-American who became a U.S. Marine and was killed in Iraq.</p><p>Lance Cpl. Juan Lopez was one of four U.S. Marines killed in an ambush in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, on June 21. His death left residents here grappling with how to best honor the 22-year-old who gave his life in a conflict most Mexicans don't believe in.</p><p>Seven visiting U.S. Marines loaded Lopez's gray coffin onto a hearse, as a swell of people engulfed the concrete street.</p><p>Family members, carrying a framed picture of Lopez in uniform, locked hands and marched behind the hearse past shabby brick homes</p><p>A mariachi band dressed in green sang, "Goodbye for ever, goodbye." The music never stopped during a somber 45-minute march across town.</p><p>Arrangements originally were made to give a traditional 21-gun salute.</p><p>But Mexico's Secretary of Defense turned down the request, saying the salute violated constitutional measures preventing foreign soldiers from bearing arms on Mexican soil.</p><p>The visiting Marines _ five who served with Lopez in Iraq _ functioned instead as pallbearers. Arriving on Sunday afternoon, they spent a private moment with the coffin.</p><p>As services began, about 300 people who could not fit into the church listened over loudspeakers and sang along.</p><p>Born in the central Mexico state of Guanajuato, Lopez migrated on his own as a teenager to be with his father, three brothers and a sister in Dalton, Ga. His mother and other family members stayed in Mexico.</p><p>In Dalton, Juan met his wife, Sandra Torres, and married her in December.</p><p>Oscar E. Lujan, attache for citizen services at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, arrived Sunday to present Lopez's citizenship to his widow, making her eligible for benefits.</p><p>Family members said they were proud that Lopez was a Marine and grief-stricken by his death.</p><p>Octavio Lopez, Juan's cousin, wore a T-shirt on Sunday that Juan had given him. "First Marine division back from Iraq," it read.</p><p>"To think of him over there in Iraq, alone without family support, it makes you sad," Octavio said.</p><p>Juan served in Iraq for two months at the start of the war and was supposed to be completing his last trip there before the end of his tour of duty in December, according to family members.</p><p>He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion of the 1st Marine Division and based at Camp Pendleton, California.</p><p>Neighbors of the Lopez family in San Luis de la Paz questioned the war that took his Juan's.</p><p>"It's sad to see a life end so quickly," said Marciana Camacho, who runs a one-room convenience store a block from the Lopez family home. "It's a personal decision to risk your life, but for me the war made no sense."</p><p>The last time family here saw Juan was when he came back last year to visit this town of 30,000. Much of the population has migrated to work in the United States.</p><p>"Little Juan's home town is crying today," said Jose Antonio Ortiz, 49, who is in charge of collecting money to pay for funerals of migrants who die after leaving for the United States.</p><p>"This is the first death thanks to a war," he said. "But we've seen many more victims here. In Mexico, it's almost like we produce citizens so that they can go away and die."</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2004/7/165637