On Friday, one month after the death of their colleagues Hector Torres and Stefania Gray, UNM community members gave public condolences during a memorial at the National Hispanic Cultural Center.
The two were found on the floor of Torres’ Albuquerque home on March 8. Ralph Montoya, Gray’s ex-boyfriend, confessed to murdering the couple to his lawyer the next day.
Torres, 54, was a professor of Chicano/Chicana studies and also taught courses about deconstructionism. To his students, he was a writer who inspired them to think outside of the box by questioning the origin of everything surrounding their environment. To his colleagues, he was a humorous man with a smile that no one will ever forget.
“Torres taught me everyone gotta live (up) to their morals,” student Oscar Ortega said to the crowd.
Gray, 43, was a mother of two and graduate student in the foreign languages department. She was going to give her master’s thesis this semester and will receive the degree posthumously. Gray was also a teacher at Bernalillo High School.
Ortega and student Robby Ortiz secured the location and raised money to place a commemorative brick in the plaza of the NHCC.
More than 80 people attended the event. Most were former students of Torres or worked with him in the English department.
Rep. Martin Heinrich was in attendance to offer his condolences.
“He was one of those people who simply touched people. All of the things he did as a mentor and a professor and friend keep (him) alive,” Heinrich said. “As long as the way you live your life is to what he impacted, then he’s still alive.”
Others expressed the struggle to recapture their daily routine. One mourner said he still calls Torres’ phone line to hear the voice message.
Student Alana Cox said she also struggles with the loss. At the memorial she wore a black dress and dark aviator sunglasses. Tears flowed from her eyes during the entire service.
“He was one of the smartest men I knew,” she said. “I would go into class from not understanding anything to understanding fully what he was saying. In his deconstruction class, you didn’t just look at the racial aspect, you were looking at people and sexual and every aspect you could possible imagine. I thought that was great.”
Other students also expressed the impact Torres had on their academic future.
“He would let us work things by ourselves,” student Alicia Sofia Chavez said. “He wouldn’t say, ‘Hey, this is how you do something.’ He would ask us questions and get our opinions.”
Ralph Torres, Hector’s older brother, said he was the only family member in attendance.
“As soon as I heard I knew exactly what happened,” he said. “Hector always had a sense of humor. He would find something funny. My favorite memory is when we would start discussing words and language and we would start discussing where things come from and why this means what it does.”
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