By DAVID LOPEZ
Special to the NEWS
Pallbearer – Luis Angel Guerra Ruiz is shown (in blue) carrying recently deceased President George H.W. Bush’s casket for the funeral ceremonies held on Dec. 2018 in Washington D.C. (Courtesy photo)
The national conversation on immigration tends to leave out one element, a dimension in which immigration and patriotism meet. The story of Luis Angel Guerra Ruiz is one such story.
A graduate of Los Fresnos High school, he is now 21-years-old and a third-year Senior Airman in the United States Air Force. However, Guerra Ruiz’s main service has been that of Ceremonial Guardsman, performing the duty of pallbearer at funerals for active duty fallen heroes, veterans, and dignitaries.
His most high profile funerals include the former first-lady Barbara Bush, Senator John McCain and the recent nationally-revered ex-President George H. W. Bush.
Luis Angel’s special service is any patriotic parents’ dream, but Ruiz’s parents have unfortunately never attended any of his services, ceremonies, graduations, or even high school sports games.
Due to a lengthy immigration process, Guerra Ruiz’s parents still live in Mexico. Since he and his two younger brothers are U.S. Citizens, Guerra-Ruiz’s parents decided it would be in the family’s best interest for the boys to attend school in the U.S. and get cared for by their grandparents, who lived in Olmito.
“We would stay in Mexico at night with our parents and at 5 AM we would walk across the border into Brownsville, take the metro, get to a gas station, get picked up by my grandparents, and get to school. After school we took the metro to the border and repeated it all again the day after,” Guerra Ruiz recalled. “That gave me a different perspective on who I wanted to be and what I wanted to do.”
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