Marcela Herrera was described as a vibrant soul as household and associates gathered Saturday on the website in Pilsen the place she was killed and her fiancé injured by a hit-and-run driver final week.
Herrera, 22, had simply completed her shift on the Tacos y Tamales Competition when she and her fiancé, Mauricio Leyva, had been strolling to dinner about 11:20 p.m. July 19. As they crossed the road at Ashland Avenue and Cullerton Avenue, the motive force of a silver automobile struck them each and fled the scene, Chicago police and her household mentioned.
Herrera and Leyva, 21, had been taken to Stroger Hospital, the place Herrera died and Leyva was handled for critical accidents.
A number of dozen family and friends members sporting pink T-shirts with Herrera’s photograph and the phrases, “Justice for Marcela” on them, prayed Saturday afternoon round a memorial.
“Above all, might justice be served, might the reality rise and should Marcela’s spirit proceed to shine by all of us,” her longtime good friend, Jazmin Ruiz, mentioned, concluding the prayer.
Some sobbed and hugged one another as they positioned flowers and different gadgets across the memorial.
The group then cut up up and canvassed the neighborhood, passing out fliers to enterprise house owners and residents in search of details about the crash and the motive force’s whereabouts.
Diego Garcia, one other longtime good friend of Herrera, mentioned he had walked the neighborhood Friday and discovered that police hadn’t requested surveillance footage from close by companies.
“I believe it’s disappointing and ridiculous that it’s been virtually every week and no person had requested enterprise house owners a block down for footage, so we’re right here to additionally urge group members to name the tip line if they’ve heard of something, in the event that they noticed something,” Garcia mentioned as a light-weight rain fell.
“This was all so sudden and in the present day, we’re right here to demand that the town does a greater job at investigating Marcela’s case,” he mentioned.
Police mentioned Saturday that no arrests have been made and that the division’s Main Accidents Unit continues to analyze. Anybody with info is requested to contact police at (312) 745-4521 or submit an nameless tip at cpdtip.com or by texting “CPDTIP” to 738-477.
A fundraiser for Herrera has collected greater than $33,000 as of Saturday night, and one other for Leyva had raised about $5,000.
Garcia mentioned that Leyva was launched from the hospital and that he has been spending time with household and “taking his time to get better.” Herrera and Leyva had been planning a marriage for Aug. 21.
Because the second oldest sibling of six youngsters, Herrera was used to being round youthful youngsters and have become enthusiastic about serving to youth in her group.
She labored at Rainforest Studying Heart pre-school within the South Loop and arranged many occasions for teenagers, together with ones final yr about psychological well being and one other for the Day of the Lifeless.
“She by no means misplaced the innocence that she had rising up,” Garcia mentioned.
Inexperienced Curtain Occasions, which organized the Tacos y Tamales Competition, helps to fund a scholarship that Garcia and Ruiz steered in honor of Herrera.
“Marcela wasn’t simply part of our group — she was household,” Inexperienced Curtain Occasions mentioned in a press release. “Her power, laughter and kindness helped form the very coronary heart of Tacos y Tamales and each occasion she touched.”
The buddies mentioned they hope to provide the scholarship to a couple college students who had comparable backgrounds as Herrera.
“We perceive that Marcela confronted many various limitations as an undocumented younger lady,” Garcia mentioned. “So, by this scholarship, we wish to assist assist different younger individuals within the metropolis in ways in which we want Marcela was supported.”
Ruiz added that the scholarship could be a super option to “convey extra consciousness, make it possible for we maintain her legacy and her title alive as a result of it is a very unlucky state of affairs that we shouldn’t must be in. And we undoubtedly assume that us, as a youth right here in Chicago, we are able to make a change.”
