Phoenix – Mourners scattered around the tombstones, covering their faces, facing down, giving a wide radius around the white casket on which Deacon Jose Garza stood, ..

Urquiza died on June 30 at the age of 65 due to complications from COVID-19, leaving his daughter Christine, his life partner Brenda, and the entire Tolleson community where he was born and raised.

His obituaryPublished in the Republic of Arizona on Wednesday, he remembers him for his “infectivity, strong will, and, yes, stubbornness.”

It also blamed his death.

“Mark, like many others, shouldn’t die of COVID-19. His death was of a politician who continues to endanger brown body health by virtue of his apparent lack of leadership. It is due to carelessness and refusal to acknowledge this seriousness, and the reluctance to give a clear and definitive direction on how to minimize risk and risk.” There is.

His daughter and daughter-in-law wrote, “Since we are putting our sadness and anger into building awareness campaigns, fewer families will be forced to endure this.”

COVID-19 robbed him of his life – the funeral Christine Urquiza thought she was worthy of her father.

“The number of people who wanted to be here, but couldn’t, is overwhelming,” she said. “This man, who has been loved by many for 65 years, hurts my heart, knowing I can’t get the right reward.”

Many of the dozens of attendees who knew Archiza from childhood were those who departed around the Holy Cross Cemetery in Avondale in the hot summer breeze after the end of Garza, looking for shade and leaving. We exchanged stories and photos.

However, new preventive measures to prevent the epidemic of COVID-19 not only limited attendance to 50 people, but also restricted witnesses to witnesses, so Paul Bearer kept caskets on his coffin until everyone disbanded. Burial dropped down on the ground near the parents’ grave.

This sorrow for her father’s death and inadequate farewell, and her anger at what she believed to be the policy failure she caused directly to his unnecessary death, made Christine Urquiza a funeral. I had to invite Governor Doug Duchy to. He didn’t accept the invitation by Wednesday morning.

She wanted to show Duchy that the more than 2,000 Arizona people who lost their lives to the new coronavirus weren’t just numbers.

“They are people like my father who are mourning the whole family and the community behind them,” she said.

“I feel like he has been robbed,” she said, and she said he wasn’t the only one.

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Several people came together more than 6 feet around Urkija’s cemetery, sharing memories of a man called “Blackjack” in his lifelong love for fame card games.

Many of them knew him for decades before growing up together in Tolleson. Even after marrying a high school lover, moving to a nearby Maryvale to raise a daughter, and working as a quality assurance inspector for the aerospace industry, Urquiza remained in close contact with his childhood community.

“He was just another brother, another mother, another brother,” said Larry Tritz, who met Urquiz when he was a truck star at Tolleson Union High School. Trits remembered that they learned how to grow bees together.

Many remember Archize with endless energy for fun and life, and have always invited friends and brothers to bars, concerts, sports games and NASCAR races.

He was in the life of a party and threw a large celebration every year for his birthday, said Garry Fendrick, who had known Archiza for 35 years. When he sang karaoke, Fendrick grinned, “I wasn’t very good, but I always sold it.”

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His daughter remembered that her father had a close relationship with friends from Tolleson from his childhood to his sixties.

“He was very enthusiastic about the community, the community. One of the things this tragedy exposed was the incredibly enormous heart and generosity my father gave to anyone in his life. .”

Then she laughed and added, “My father was, in a way, like Mayor Nishitani.”

“I was surprised at the show,” John Limon stared at the cemetery of about 50 people who went to the funeral of his childhood friend. “But this is happening, so I know why no one appeared.”

Rick Urquiza agreed that his brother would fill the chapel and graveyard without the pandemic.

“He left this world too soon,” he softly wept. “I’m still shocked.”

“Government. Ducy has blood in his hands.”

Christine Urquiza discovers that her father died on a drive from her home in San Francisco to Phoenix.

“I had to pick up the phone at the gas station beside the freeway where his heart was broken,” she said. It was the way she last spoke to her father: his family was virtually he through FaceTime when he was last sedated with him and alone except the nurse when he took his last breath. Lifted the phone so that I could be with.

Urquiza became ill on June 11th and was COVID-19 positive the next day. Five days later he told his life partner Brenda that he needed to go to the hospital. He was on high oxygen therapy for 10 days and his condition steadily declined before being moved to the ICU and fitted with a ventilator. According to his daughter, he died on June 30, four days later. There was no underlying illness.

“I’m still shocked. I can’t believe it,” he said. Forty-eight years at Brenda Urkiza, he attended high school for three years, then married over 20 and eventually divorced, but lived together in Maryvale for the last ten years10.

“He lived more life, it’s too early and too early for him,” she said. “It’s sad that he can’t come here to see Christine, all that she is trying to do, and sees his nephew and niece and his brothers and sisters.

Brenda tested positive for COVID-19, but fortunately had few symptoms.

Although she doesn’t know exactly how he got the virus, Christine Urquiza found her father’s belief in Duchy’s advice and put him in place during his first home order, which began in March. She said she knew she had evacuated.

When Dusey allowed the company to reopen on May 15, she said, “I had the complete impression that my father would be safe to resume operations as usual.”

Her mother said, “His friend is going to have some drinks” or “will be karaoke”. He couldn’t be kept away.”

On June 29, before Marc Urquizza’s death, Duchy closed the bar again.

“Dad’s death was completely unnecessary and could not have happened if he acted swiftly and swiftly in a manner that prioritized public health,” his daughter said.

She also said she was “upset” at the disproportionate effects the pandemic had on the national color community.

Like Mary Vale, Tolleson is a majority Hispanic and working class. Urquiza’s father was an immigrant from Durango, Mexico, and his mother was a first-generation Mexican-American.

According to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hospitalization rates for blacks and browns are five times higher than those for whites. They are also more likely to die from COVID-19 than whites.

Meanwhile, Mary Vale saw some of the worst infection rates, but she has few opportunities for COVID-19 testing in the city.

According to the FedEx Tracking website, she said this was the reason she extended the invitation to the funeral to Governor Duchy, whose office received the letter, but why she didn’t reply. She wanted him to witness firsthand what she believed he was the result of lack of leadership.

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“I believe that our elected civil servants have the power and responsibility to protect the safety of voters. I think Duchy bleeds into his hands.”

On Thursday, Duchy issued an executive order limiting the capacity of Dyne Service restaurants to less than 50%.

“This is a risk reduction process,” Duchy said. “Make the best decisions to reduce the risk of getting this virus, the risk of spreading it, and especially the most vulnerable people.”

COVID Vigil marks on Capitol

Following her father’s funeral, Christine Urquiza, along with her mother and her partner Christine Kibs, went downtown in Phoenix to set up a candlelight outside the Arizona State Capitol.

She posted an event on her Facebook page “Vigil & Ofrenda for People Lost in COVID”. Markedby COVID created on her Sunday. Living “

“Governor Duchy has blood in his hands,” Christine Urquiza repeated to the press. “The blood is the blood of my father and nearly 2,000 other Arizona people who have died so far.”

She also said more than that her father would die alone, apart from his family, and not be able to fill the entire graveyard with his friends.

“If I can do a safe funeral, this governor can do a safe condition!” she said.

Attended was state councilor Raquel Terran, who stated that she was in the district, including part of Maryvale in the state, and that she was there to join the Urquiz family.

“Rage of Justice,” she said about Christine Urquis’ statement to Duchy. “You need to be accountable. That’s why I’m here because I need accountability at all levels.”

Kristin Urkiza uses her sadness and anger to draw attention to the state and wants to change its effect. She raised over $30,000 on GoFundMe to tell her story to NBC News, cover his funeral costs, and launch a campaign to spread information about COVID-19.

She said she hopes through her anger and pain that something positive will come out.

“I don’t allow him to die for another number, another,” she said. “I call on people across the state and across the country to move your story forward in order to name and face the lives we have lost, not only to Governor Duchy but also to the Trump administration. To prevent death

Follow Emily Wilder on Twitter @vv1lder

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