Artist sets up memorial and plans a mural for Philly plane crash victims to send ‘message of hope’
PHILADELPHIA — On Sunday, artist Roberto Marquez was around 150 miles from Philadelphia, in Arlington County, Virginia. There, the mural artist from Dallas decided to build a memorial to the people killed when a passenger jet collided with an Army helicopter while landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C., last week.
The artist put up 67 crosses at Gravelly Point, near the crash site, one for each person killed in the crash.
Two days later, Marquez, 62, found himself on the corner of Cottman and Bustleton avenues, in Northeast Philadelphia, steps away from where a small medical plane fell from the sky, smashing into Cottman Avenue.
The crash killed all six people on board, including an 11-year-old girl from Mexico and her mother. A seventh person on the ground was also killed, and at least 24 people were injured.
Marquez has been doing this type of community art since 2018, looking to fight the pain wrought by disasters with the beauty created through art. Before going to Virginia, he also built a memorial in Pasadena, Calif., for the fires that destroyed homes and left several people dead in Southern California.
“I wanted to send a message to our Mexican brothers and sisters that are in pain right now,” Marquez said in Spanish on Tuesday. “A memorial is a place where we gather and share positive energy.”
Marquez set up a makeshift memorial Monday night, he said, starting with artificial flowers and prayer candles on a blanket, with Mexican and American flags hanging proudly above. He planned to paint a mural, with messages of perseverance and the names of the victims of the crash, he said.
Marquez also planned to host a vigil at the corner at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.
After setting up on the corner closer to the crash site, Marquez moved across the street Tuesday afternoon after a local business asked him to leave their property.
All six people on the medical transport plane were Mexican nationals, including Valentina Guzmán Murillo, 11, who had been receiving medical treatment for months in Philadelphia for a spinal condition, and Josué de Jesús Juarez Juarez, 43, the co-pilot on the plane who had a passion for aviation.
Being of Mexican descent himself, hearing of the crash hit him hard, Marquez said, and he felt he needed to help in his way.
At the top of the mural, he hopes to emblazon a message to his homeland, alongside the names of those lost: México lindo y querido. Mexico, beautiful and loved.
“I want to send a message of hope,” he said.
