They worked the overnight shift fixing potholes on a famed bridge that 30,000 Marylanders relied on every day. But their work ended in tragedy March 26, when a 213-million-pound cargo vessel crashed into the bridge – plunging the construction workers into the frigid water below.
After a daylong search, officials called off the rescue mission and said six workers were presumed dead. It was virtually impossible to survive the bitterly cold, 50-foot-deep water for several hours. And it was too treacherous for divers to navigate the dark water amid sharp debris.
It took six weeks for recovery crews to chip away at the debris and recover the last of the six victims. The agony and grief transcended borders, as the six construction workers hailed from Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico and Guatemala – though many had called Maryland home for years.
“We know our people are involved,” said Rafael Laveaga, chief of the Mexican Embassy in Washington’s consular section. “It was a crew who was repairing parts of the potholes on the bridge, and they’re the ones who are going to build the bridge again – the Latinos.”
These are the fathers, brothers and sons whose lives made an impact near and far:
A father of 3 worked ‘tirelessly’ for his family
José Mynor López’s family endured six weeks of agonizing uncertainty, wondering when the inevitable news would come.
The confirmation came May 7 when López, a 37-year-old Baltimore resident and native of Guatemala, became the final construction worker recovered from the water.
“José was a great man, husband, and dad – an extremely hard-working individual, a great provider, and family man,” said Lilly Ordonez, owner of Owls Corner Café in Dundalk – where López’s wife Isabel Franco worked.
The business started a GoFundMe page – which no longer appears to be active – for Franco and her family, saying the wife and children face an “uncertain future” without their “main provider and pillar of strength.”
“(Lopez) worked tirelessly to ensure his family had everything they needed,” the GoFundMe page said. “His sudden absence has left a void that cannot be filled, both emotionally and financially.”
In the days following the bridge collapse, Ordonez – who is close to the family – said Franco was in a state of shock, “barely sleeping or eating.”
Lopez’s two youngest children didn’t understand what was happening, Ordonez said. But the couple’s 17-year-old daughter has been a pillar of support for her mother.
A loving boyfriend’s final words
Carlos Hernández, a 24-year-old construction worker from Mexico, sent his girlfriend Jazmin Alvarez a voice memo from the bridge minutes before the collapse.
“Yes, my love, we just poured the cement and we’re just waiting for it to dry,” Hernández told his girlfriend, according to the voice note she shared with CNN affiliate Univison.
Alvarez recalled the moment she realized something went terribly wrong.
“I have the GPS tracking on his cellphone, so I looked, and it showed he was by the water. But I figured since he was on the bridge, that’s why it showed him being near the water,” Alvarez told Univision.
But later on, “he didn’t answer.” Alvarez said she feared her boyfriend may have been in a car accident.
Hernández’s aunt called Alvarez around 4 a.m., telling her about the bridge collapse.
“I never imagined it was this bad,” Alvarez told Univision.
Hernández’s mother said the tragedy is like a never-ending nightmare.
“I wake up, I want to think I am dreaming,” mother Lucia Zambrano told Univision. “But I wake up and I know this is reality.”
A visionary whose motto was ‘triple our efforts and work hard’
Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval’s ambition and work ethic couldn’t be contained. They led him to the country of his dreams and even his own company.
The 38-year-old was “a visionary person, a man who dreamed big,” his brother Martin Suazo told CNN en Español.
“Despite being the youngest, he was a motor that psychologically drove us – the entire family – day by day,” the brother said.
“He was one of those people who, every time we spoke, said: ‘If we want to get ahead as a family, we all have to triple our efforts and work hard – as many hours as possible so that we can get ahead and help other people.’ And he had that,” Martin Suazo said.
“He said that in Honduras, there was not going to be the prosperity that he dreamed of and that … he was going to go to the United States.”
In the 18 years he lived in the US, Maynor Suazo worked in construction and also started a maintenance company.
“He was fulfilling his dreams there,” Martin Suazo said.
Maynor Suazo was also married with two children – an 18-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter, his brother said.
Now, the loss of the family’s beloved visionary is indescribable.
“As a family, it is agony,” Martin Suazo said. “It is something that we do not wish on anyone.”
A beloved nephew’s death leaves his family in disbelief
Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, lived in Baltimore but maintained strong bonds with relatives in Veracruz state, Mexico.
“We saw Alejandro being born. We spent time together during his childhood. We lived all together,” his uncle Wenceslao Contreras Ortiz said from Xalapa, Mexico. “On his birthdays, we saw him blowing his candles and hitting his piñatas and everything else.”
When Ortiz first heard his nephew was a victim in the Baltimore disaster thousands of miles away, he couldn’t believe it.
“Immediately, I recognized the name. I said it can’t be,” Ortiz said.
But the horror was confirmed when he saw a black ribbon posted on his sister’s social media account.
Grappling with the loss of his nephew has “been very hard, to be honest,” Ortiz said. But he’s finding solace in his faith.
“It really moves you when you are praying, and you realize that, well … he has already gone to the house of the Father,” Ortiz said.
A man followed his dream to help his family
Dorlian Castillo Cabrera came to the US from Guatemala to pursue his dream and help his mother, Marlon Castillo, his cousin, told CNN.
Pima Castillo, Cabrera’s sister-in-law, said he had been working at Brawner Builders for at least three years and loved his job. He was not married and did not have children, she said.
“Unfortunately, he was in a place where no one imagined what was going to happen,” Marlon Castillo said.
A father of 3 who called Maryland home for 19 years
Miguel Luna was a husband and father of three from El Salvador who lived in Maryland for over 19 years, according to the nonprofit CASA, which provides services to working-class and immigrant families.
“Sadly, we discovered that one of the construction workers involved was a longtime member of our CASA family, adding an even deeper layer of sorrow to this already grievous situation,” CASA Executive Director Gustavo Torres said.
CNN has tried to reach Luna’s family members for more information.
While Luna worked in construction, his wife operated a food truck in Glen Burnie, Maryland.
Ratneswar Roychowdhury, a frequent customer of the food truck, said he last saw Luna a few days before the catastrophe. Since Luna was not fluent in English, they would communicate via a translation app.
“It’s very sad. Having known him for almost one and a half years … it’s quite disheartening for everyone,” Roychowdhury told CNN while standing outside the food truck.
“I’m really feeling sorry for his family. He … takes care of all of them.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Elvin Sandoval, Jillian Sykes, Michael Rios, Tina Burnside, Caroll Alvarado, Alex Stambaugh, Abel Alvarado, Gloria Pazmino and Alex Medeiros contributed to this report.
