On Thursday morning, Ulysses Espinosa began his drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles. He had made the trips countless times before but this time it was different. Espinosa was driving down to Los Angeles to honor and celebrate his mother, Gloria Espinosa during the upcoming Día de los Muertos holiday.
“Every time I come to Los Angeles, I visit my mother’s grave site. My mother was a devout Catholic so I usually do the rosary,” Espinosa said. “This time, I brought a little altar where I can burn sage, copal and palo santo.”
Espinosa’s mother passed away on Jan. 14, 2021 of COVID-19 complications. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Latino individuals, like Espinosa’s mother, are at a higher risk for hospitalization or death of COVID-19 than other racial or ethnic groups. As of July 2021, Latinos and Hispanics have accounted for 19 percent of deaths and 29 percent of COVID-19 hospitalizations. This year, Día de los Muertos celebrations will be a poignant reminder of the pandemic and the lives lost to it.
In honor of his mother, Espinosa’s oldest sister has set up an altar in her house. His older brother, Carlos, lives close to the Rose Hills Cemetery in Whittier where their mother is buried. He visits her grave site regularly and has already decorated it for the celebrations.
“[Carlos] is actually having a celebration at his house in honor of my mom,” Espinosa said. “It’s going to be a little celebration and not a big one obviously because of the pandemic.”
Espinosa’s last memories with his mother are from last Christmas. The holidays are a special time for his family, Christmas being his mother’s favorite. Every year, Gloria would host the family and decorate the house. “You walk into our house and it looks like Santa Clause threw up in here,” Espinosa said laughing of his mother’s decorations that covered every corner of the house.
Having spent most of 2020 isolating, Espinosa drove down to Los Angeles to spend time with his parents and siblings. He quarantined and got tested prior to the drive. He decided to stay with his brother instead of his parents like he usually does as a precaution.
“We surprised them on Christmas Day, we were outside carolling,” Espinosa said. “My mother opened the door and started crying. She said, ‘I just made dinner for your dad and me.’” Espinosa noticed his parents coughing and when he asked about it, his parents brushed it off saying it was a common cold.
A few days later, upon their return to San Francisco, Espinosa and his fiancé got tested for COVID-19. His fiancé resulted in a positive case. He immediately alerted his siblings to get their parents tested, however he said they were divided. Some of his siblings wanted to get his parents tested, the others decided to treat the symptoms.
Espinosa eventually tested positive for COVID-19 and said he spiked a fever of 103 degrees. His fiancé lost her sense of smell and taste.
“We got the exact same strain but our bodies reacted differently,” he said.
While he was recuperating, Espinosa got a call from his brother about how they had to rush his mother to the emergency room and that when she got there, she coded and it was a code blue.
“They put the pads on her and they brought her back, they got a heartbeat but my mom never really came back,” he said. On Jan. 14, the family made the decision to remove their mother from the ventilator as she was not responsive.
“Mom was the glue that held the family together. Everything revolved around mom,” Espinosa said. “She was truly loved by everyone and our home was always that house where people were always welcome.”
Following his mother’s death, Espinosa said there was a family fallout as some of his family members were more cautious about COVID-19 where others were not as careful.
“Everybody starts pointing fingers and at the end it’s nobody’s fault. It’s [COVID-19 deaths] happened to hundreds of thousands of people and you can’t blame anybody,” he said. “When you lose someone, it’s a natural thing to ask why it happened.”
The pandemic affected families in different ways and for some more permanently. Espinosa said the upcoming weekend honoring his mother for Día de los Muertos is going to be a good one.
“I think it’s nice because you get to celebrate someone’s life and my mother was definitely larger than life.”