Victim of Austin shooting rampage laid to rest almost a month later in Guatemala

It is Qʼeqchiʼ tradition that, on the third day after a funeral, the family of the deceased return to the burial site to lead the loved one’s spirit — who has remained around the house, in residents’ thoughts and dreams — to its body.

The family gathers around the tomb and thanks the departed. They reminisce, console and reassure. It’s for everyone’s peace of mind.

On Thursday morning at the town cemetery in La Caoba, a small town of about 1,500 in northern Guatemala, Abelino Pop Ba stood next to his brother’s cement tomb to recall their childhood dreams. Abelino reminded his brother that though they had not lived out full lives in each other’s companies as they had wanted, they had, for many years, worked together and escaped the poverty of their youths. Abelino asked him not to worry about the family in Guatemala, whom the brother had called almost daily and often supported during his time in the United States.

“I told him to stay and rest, that it wasn’t his fault or mine or any of ours” that he had died with unfinished hopes and dreams, Abelino said in Spanish.

Abelino’s brother, Emmanuel Pop Ba, 32, was one of the four Austin victims of the Dec. 5 shootings that Austin police believe were committed by a San Antonio-area man who first killed his parents. Emmanuel, a well-respected and well-loved workman, had lived in Austin for six years at the time of his death. He was survived by his three children and partner in the United States and a mother and two full brothers in Guatemala. His Tuesday interment in his hometown — nearly a month after his death — marked some closure for Emmanuel’s family.

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In Guatemala, large processions meet Emmanuel

Emmanuel’s body arrived in Guatemala on Monday in a shiny coffin draped in the American and Guatemalan flags. He was given three ceremonies that day: one at his parent-in-law’s home in the town of La Libertad, another at the nearby house he had under construction at the time of his death, and the third, a wake, at the Pop family home in La Caoba.

Videos from the celebrations of life show what appear to be hundreds of people at each occasion. There were Qʼeqchiʼ-language Catholic ceremonies and eulogies at each. Between the events, a caravan of dozens of motorcycles followed the hearse van carrying Emmanuel’s body. Into the nighttime, into the rain, their honks croaked and croaked.

Abelino attributed the community’s broad support of his family to its strong sense of identity — as Qʼeqchi'-speaking people — and the Pop family’s good standing.

“People are united here. That’s how we are here. Something happens and people come and support each other,” he said. “They don’t leave you in pain; they take it on alongside you.”

He also believed that Emmanuel’s gruesome death had shocked a community that has sent large numbers of migrants to the United States. News of naturally occurring deaths from the North have arrived before. There has even been a case of a death from drunk driving, he said, but no one from the town has ever died like Emmanuel did.

On Tuesday, several hundred mourners gathered for the burial ceremony in the yard outside of the Pop family home. Guests quickly filled the 400 rented chairs, leaving others to stand, Abelino said. Women wore their brightly colored shawls. A few rays of sun passed through the clot of clouds. After about three hours of hymns and speeches, a procession followed the casket for 25 minutes, down forested roads and past cow fields, to the town cemetery.

Emmanuel was entombed aside his father and grandmother. As with local tradition, his clothes, including the outfit he wore when he graduated with a teaching credential, were placed alongside his coffin.

Abelino said the Pop family was relieved and satisfied to have Emmanuel buried in his hometown.

“You can die in another part. But this is where you grew up, where you made memories (and) were born. … He had left, but he had always said he was not going to stay away,” Abelino said.

“That is why he had to return.”

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1,000 miles away

Emmanuel’s partner, Domitilia Caal Pop, stayed by her phone on Monday and Tuesday to watch the ceremonies through Facebook video streams from her apartment in Austin.

It brought her some solace to see the burying of her partner approach a conclusion.

“Before I couldn't sleep, asking myself, ‘What are they doing to him (at the morgue, at the funeral homes)?' But now I know that he’s resting,” she said in Spanish.

Uncertainties about her and her daughter’s ability to return to the U.S. restrained her urges to return and see the funeral services in person, she said.

Her family had a wake in Austin on Dec. 28. Family members came from throughout Texas, as did many strangers, countrymen living in the surrounding areas, who stopped to pay their respects and introduce themselves.

In the days since the interment, Domitilia and her family began a novenario, or the nine days of mourning in Catholic tradition that include a nightly rosary. In the rite, she said, she was finding the opportunity she needed to ask for some tranquility for her now-deceased partner, and for herself.

What’s next?

It’s the question Domitilia continues to ask herself.

The shock of the incident has left her feeling insecure in Austin, she said. The fright of a looming and indiscriminate danger accompanies her when she leaves her apartment and when she thinks of the children’s imminent return to school from winter break.

Should she and the children all return to Guatemala? Should they all try to stay in Austin? Could the kids go back to Guatemala while she stays in the States to work?

One is an economic sacrifice. The others, emotional ones. There are legal complications to each.

“It’s all still up in air,” she said.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin shooting victim entombed in Guatemala; family watches from US