"Six presumed dead.'' The men on the Key Bridge.
Woody Guthrie’s words keep coming back to me this morning.
But we died in your hills, we died in your valleys.
We died in your orchards, we died on your plains.
We died on your deserts, we died in your treetops.
Both sides of the river we died just the same.
Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita.
Adios mis amigos, Jesus and Maria.
You won't have a name when you ride the big airplane.
No, all they will call you will be Deportee.
- Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)
As the reports of the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge filled the news yesterday, they kept referring to six workers who remain missing but likely dead.
Based on most major media reports, none apparently had names. They were just immigrants.
“Two Guatemalans and a Salvadoran are are among the missing, foreign officials and local aid group said. A Mexican Embassy official in Washington said some missing are also Mexican, though he did not say how many. The family of a man from Honduras also said their loved one has not come home after working on the bridge,” reported ABC news.
But they do have names, families and friends who loved them.
Doing some internet searches I was able to learn two of the names of the workers who died when the bridge collapsed.
Miguel Luna worked 15 years for Brawner Builders, a construction company. He was an immigrant from Guatemala.
Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval was originally from Honduras but had been living in the United States for the last 18 years. He was married with an 18-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter,
All the others who fell into the icy waters were also immigrants.
But they were more than that.
I’ll keep searching for their names.