SAN ANTONIO — Community members gathered Sunday night to honor a man they say died in the Texas heat after losing his legs to winter storm Uri. They say his story is a small look at a much bigger problem.
As the hot summer sun departed Sunday night, advocates, neighbors and friends came to honor the departed.
On the side of I-35, a vigil was held in the name of Albert Garcia.
As of this writing, the medical examiner has not released the name of the man found dead under the southbound exit for Nogalitos on August 12th. They also do not have an official cause of death, but people at the vigil said they were confident it was Garcia and that the summer heat played a role in his death.
"We know that temperatures at his camp were 114 degrees,” said Marisol Cortez, Co-Editor of Deceleration.news
“It's hard to imagine, just on a commonsense level, that it wouldn't have been a contributing factor," she said.
Cortez spent most of a year working to get Garcia housed after he lost both of his feet during winter storm Uri. She chronicled the experience on her website.
"What I discovered… is that really there's no resources for somebody who's that vulnerable.” Cortez said. “It's almost it was almost like the more vulnerable you are, the fewer and fewer, resources really there are.”
Cortez acknowledged that Garcia had a history of substance use. She said he worked to become completely sober once he was housed, but she said when he was back on the street he relapsed within days. She said it’s possible that also may have played a role, but that it doesn’t mean the record heat should be ignored.
“If he had come back to the neighborhood, say, in March, right when it was cooler instead of in a wave of extreme heat,… Maybe we would have had a little more time to find housing options for him,” she said.
Maria C Turvin with Yanawana Herbelarios said she was Garcia’s primary medic. For years her organization has been providing San Antonio’s houseless population with street medicine. in Garcia’s name, she is calling on the community to participate in a month of action.
"We started last week by encouraging people to go talk at their town halls," Turvin said. "We're encouraging people to go and speak at the citizens to be heard next week, you know, about the community, and investing in the community:"
Turvin said she hopes that by continuing the work she will see the arrival of a brighter tomorrow.
“There are people all over San Antonio that love and care about our neighbors,” she said. “But it needs to be more of us, needs to be all of us.”