Part one in a series.
The fallen sons of two Barelas neighborhood families are finally being memorialized at the National Hispanic Cultural Center.
Marine Pfc. Manuel Mora and Marine Sgt. Pete Padilla gave their lives in service during the Vietnam conflict. The NHCC promised in 2000 to honor Mora and Padilla with a park and memorial.
Now, 14 years later, that promise is being kept.
The story of the memorial starts not with the promise, but 30 years earlier, when the city of Albuquerque founded a memorial park for the two boys from Barelas.
Pete Padilla’s older brother, Joe Padilla, said the park stood until 1999, when its badly weathered remains were torn down and the NHCC was built on the grounds.
One year later, the Albuquerque City Council and the board members of the NHCC promised the families of Mora and Pete Padilla a memorial to the two heroes.
Yet the frequent turnover of NHCC board members cost the families years of progress, Joe Padilla said.
“One goes out and another member comes in, then he has to be confirmed by the governor,” Joe Padilla said. “Then a year later or so, one goes out and another member comes in, so this is all new to the new board members.”
Although Joe Padilla wanted his brother remembered, he has been advocating for Mora as if he were family too, he said.
“The idea of the bronze sculpture with the two Marines standing side-by-side was fantastic,” Joe Padilla said.
Everything changed when Rebecca Avitia, the NHCC’s newest executive director, took over, he said.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Avitia said she had to investigate the work of a long chain of former directors to get to the bottom of the promised memorial. But once she did, she said, she was able to make a lot of headway in very little time.
“I had a handful of top priorities for my first six months, (and) the memorial park was one of them,” Avitia said. “I think there has been a series of changes in leadership here that have certainly slowed the process.”
There was little in the way of plans and records when it came to the memorial, Avitia said, but she met with the families, members of the board and even Cabinet Secretary Veronica Gonzales to make sure the 15-year-old promise was kept.
“I just knew it had to be dealt with, it had to be fixed,” she said. “Something had to be done because where it was sitting was not healthy for anybody.”
Finally, the day came when an artist was selected. The families and the NHCC chose Sonny Rivera, a local sculptor who is himself a veteran.
Rivera, who is in the process of completing the memorial for Mora and Pete Padilla, said the community of Barelas, including other former Marines, has been adamant about the memorial depicting these two soldiers.
Rivera said he wanted to make the two life-sized, as befitted the heroes.
“To make a sculpture worth its weight in gold … to give it the position that you need, I wouldn’t go less than 6 feet,” Rivera said. “I wouldn’t make it any smaller.”
Being chosen to work on this memorial gives Rivera a sense of pride, he said.
“I am elated. I’m glad and humbled to see all these people coming together, and there’s no way that they cannot have the piece that they want,” Rivera said. “These boys lost their lives for us, and now this is going to happen.”
Joe Padilla wants to be the mouthpiece for his family on relating the feelings this memorial inspires in them and the impact it has on the neighborhood of Barelas, he said.
“Rebecca asked me one day, ‘What is the importance of this memorial?’ and I said, ‘I want to see my brother’s likeness,” Joe Padilla said.
Photos are all the families have left to remember their sons, he said.
“When I see that sculpture, it’s lifelike and I can say, ‘Welcome back, boys,’” Joe Padilla said. “To us — the Padillas — this is very personal … We never got to see our brother’s remains. He was in a sealed casket.”
All four of the Padilla brothers served in the Vietnam conflict, but Pete Padilla was the only one among them who did not come home, Joe Padilla said.
“I want to see my brother like I am looking at a real person in 3 dimensions,” he said. “Even though it’s in bronze, to me he’s back.”
Stephen Montoya is culture editor at the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @StephenMontoya9.
