In the central Mexican state of Puebla, community members are paying tribute to Leobardo López Pascual, one of the Mexican citizens who lost his life in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City. López Pascual had immigrated to the United States and was working at Windows on the World, the renowned restaurant perched atop the North Tower of the World Trade Center, when the building was struck by a hijacked airliner.
Along with dozens of coworkers and guests, López Pascual became trapped on the tower’s upper floors, with no way to escape before the structure collapsed. Like many families of the roughly 3,000 victims killed that day, his relatives in Mexico were left to grapple with the loss from afar, unable to be by his side in his final moments.
His widow shared a heartbreaking detail from their last conversation: during their final phone call, López Pascual mentioned he planned to send her money to buy a cake, a small, ordinary promise that became one of her last memories of him. Puebla has a long history of sending immigrants to the New York area, and community members there continue to mark the anniversary of the attacks as a moment of collective mourning for the paisanos, or fellow countrymen, who never made it home.
To watch the full video report and hear more from López Pascual’s family, check out the original story on Telemundo.
Source: En Puebla recuerdan a Leobardo López Pascual, fallecido en los ataques del 11 de septiembre (telemundo.com).
Image: VinothChandar, BY 2.0 (via Openverse).