A Filipina-American who loved playing the piano and her Chilean husband lived on the tenth floor of the building. A floor below were the Cuban immigrant grandparents who had dreamed of retreating to the beach. And, just a week ago, a young Paraguayan arrived to work as a nanny. The collapsed Champlain Towers South condo in Miami was a true reflection of the metropolis’ international mix: South American immigrants, Orthodox Jews, foreign retirees.
The collapse of the 12-story building on Thursday quickly became a symbol of international tragedy, as families around the world hoped for news of their loved ones in a terrifying state of limbo. Among them is Richard Luna, who is praying for a miracle but already talks about his sister in the past tense. Lady Vanessa Luna Villalba, a nanny just arrived from rural Paraguay: “She came to Miami with the hope of raising and helping our parents,” said her brother who is anxiously watching the news in Paraguay: “We are emotionally devastated.” The daughter of farmers, 23-year-old Luna had studied as a nurse but was looking after the three children of a Paraguayan family who helped her obtain a passport. The children are also missing along with their parents, Sophia Lopez Moreira Bo and Luis Pettengil, the sister and brother-in-law of the president of Paraguay.
The number of people present in the building is yet to be discovered. A clearer picture emerged from diplomatic dispatches and overseas news: Israeli media said the country’s consul general in Miami, Maor Elbaz, believes 20 citizens of that country have disappeared. Another 22 people were missing from Argentina, Venezuela, Uruguay and Paraguay. By Friday evening, authorities had helped family members in more than a dozen countries obtain visas to travel to Florida, Senator Marco Rubio said in a tweet. The horror of seeing the hard-to-watch video of the tower’s collapse was compounded by the shock of its location – America. “You don’t think this could happen here in the United States,” said Sergio Lozano Jr, whose grandparents Antonio and Gladys Lozano, both in their eighties, are among the missing. The couple emigrated from Cuba years ago, and the now retired Elder Lozano worked in the banking sector. Until a day ago, they were living their dream in unit 903 of the tower on the sea: “My grandfather always said that when he retired, he wanted to retire on the beach – says the grandson – He wanted to be able to go out on his balcony and the beach”. Their son, Lozano Jr’s father, lived two buildings away and on Thursday evening the family had dinner together: “My father came home and woke up at 1.30 am to a thunderous noise that sounded like a tornado and went to his balcony to bring the outdoor furniture. He looked out at the apartment building. It was gone. He called me to say ‘They are gone’. “
Juan Mora Sr. and his wife Ana were also immigrants from Cuba and were part of a very close Cuban-American community. Their son Juan Jr. was born in the United States and stayed away from his parents during the pandemic, but was visiting when the building collapsed: “He was doing his best to keep them safe,” said the friend of longtime Danny Ugarte. Her mother Ana, a former Delta Airlines employee, has done so much for her community, her children and her church, she also organizes missionary trips to Santo Domingo to help build churches and bridges: “She was a very devoted Catholic, a genuinely caring and loving ». Ugarte friends are trying to stay positive, but Danny’s mother Jeanne is resigned: “I know they won’t find them alive, it’s been too long.”
Among the six missing Colombian natives is a family of three who came to the United States weeks ago to get the Covid vaccine and take a vacation. Luis Fernando Barth, 51, director of a non-profit organization, his wife Catalina Gomez, a 45-year-old lawyer, and their daughter Valeria Barth, 14, are from the city of Medellin in western Colombia. They were renting in apartment 204 and shouldn’t have been there. They had traveled to another seaside resort and planned to return to the rent on Thursday: “Unfortunately they decided to anticipate the trip and arrived at the apartment again on Wednesday,” said the woman’s brother-in-law, Jose Luis Arango, who spoke with them last time Wednesday evening.
For the Velasquez family, these days were meant to be a moment of union after the coronavirus pandemic had kept them apart. Theresa Velasquez traveled from California to visit her parents, Julio and Angela. “All three were in the building when it collapsed,” said her uncle, Fernando Velasquez. Julio, 66, born in Colombia, was a retired Catholic devotee from the insurance industry. He enjoyed football and traveling with his wife, Angela, who owned a clothing store. He was also writing a book on religion, said his brother, who talked to him on the phone almost every day. “It was a breath of fresh air. He was a bringer of peace. It was a joy ».
Among the missing South Americans there was also a prominent Argentine plastic surgeon, her husband and their young daughter. Dr. Andres Galfrascoli, 45, has a studio in Buenos Aires but took his family to Miami because he couldn’t work in the Argentine capital during the pandemic. Her husband, Fabian Nunez, 55, is a theater producer and director. “Andres is one of the best surgeons in the country, very low profile, very honest,” a friend, Flavia Martinez, told a local TV station. “I talked to him the day before yesterday, he told me he was fine, that he was resting.” The family had been in Miami since April and had enrolled their 6-year-old daughter, Sofia, in a local school. They were one of the first Argentine same-sex couples to have a child via surrogacy and they wanted another child.
A Chilean man, Claudio Bonnefoy, and his Filipino-American wife, Maria Obias Bonnefoy, lived on the tenth floor of the building. Her husband, 85, a lawyer, is second cousin of former Chilean president and high commissioner for human rights Michelle Bachelet. His wife Maria, 69, was an artist who loved to play the piano and was very close to her sister Dulce Obias Manno: «She was extremely cautious during the pandemic, going out only to buy food. And in the end all alone to suffer this unexpected tragedy ».
The Surfside neighborhood is also home to a large Orthodox Jewish community, and families flock to the sidewalks before sunset going to Sabbath services. In the Orthodox community, thoughts have turned not only to the grim probability of multiple deaths, but to how to manage the inevitable burials. According to Jewish custom, true virtue or “Chesed Shel Emes” means that the whole body and all its parts, including limbs, blood and tissues, are to be collected for burial. The bodies cannot even be left overnight or exposed outdoors. Zaka World, a volunteer organization in Israel, specializes in the painstaking work of collecting the entire body. International director David Rose said that in mass disasters like the one in Miami, DNA samples are used for blood and tissue, carefully collecting them from concrete and other surfaces. In some cases, however, some parts may not correspond to the deceased: “Everything is collected and everything is buried. It may not be with the person it belongs to, but this is the most important thing: that it be buried. ‘