Lorenzo Salgado’s family bids him farewell in a private service steeped in Mexican traditions, with mariachis and rancheras

Mexican immigrant Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was bid farewell with photographs from his life projected onto two screens at the front of a chapel in Houston. He appeared as a young man wearing a white cowboy hat; embracing his three sons; sitting beside his wife on a sofa upholstered with pink flowers while holding a beer; standing next to a Christmas tree. At the center of it all stood the casket, which seemed to fade into the background as the slideshow played.

“When we remember someone, we connect with their life,” read one of the messages that interrupted the slideshow. “When we remember someone, it is often because of the small things.” In the Great Chapel at Forest Park Lawndale in Houston, a large portrait of a smiling Lorenzo Salgado was placed to one side, along with some construction tools to recall his trade.

The soundtrack to the service began with the deep tones of a live mariachi ensemble, led by the guitarrón and guitar. Later came songs such as Antonio Aguilar’s Adiós, adiós and Qué falta me hace mi padre, a playlist carefully chosen for a final farewell.

His sons, Ronaldo, Lorenzo and the youngest, whose name has not been made public, sat in the front row of the chapel, receiving condolences from a long line of mourners that stretched from outside the building to the front, where each person stopped to offer a handshake. Ronaldo was seen sighing and wiping away tears after embracing a friend. He then shook hands with a Houston police officer who had come to offer his condolences.

In the front row opposite them, across the aisle, sat Lorenzo Salgado’s wife. She rarely rose from her seat, doing so only to embrace a few relatives and friends and Democratic Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia, who has stood by the family in its call for a transparent investigation to determine why an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent fired at Salgado’s van on July 7.

There were no speeches at the wake, no accusations and no demands directed at the federal government. There was silence. After an intense week of press conferences, interviews, vigils and protests, the family requested privacy. Cell phones were not permitted inside the chapel, and television news crews were barred from entering. Police officers and volunteers maintained a steady watch around the venue.

Among those attending were some of Salgado’s siblings, his nieces and nephews, and relatives and members of the close-knit community who had accompanied either Lorenzo or his children at different stages of their lives. Some wore blue at the family’s request.

At least during the two hours that the wake was open to the public, Víctor Salgado, who was detained in the same operation in which his brother was killed, was not seen arriving to pay his respects. While the rest of the family gathered to say goodbye, he remained in ICE custody at a detention facility about an hour north of Houston.

Outside the chapel

The afternoon before the family gathered at the Forest Park Lawndale chapel, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) made public a search warrant for Lorenzo Salgado’s van in order to examine the contents of several plastic bags scattered across the windshield and floor of the vehicle. According to the warrant, the bags contained a “crystal-like substance.” Investigators suspected they were methamphetamines. The examination was carried out, Aaron Reitz, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, confirmed in a statement, though he did not disclose the results.

Making such a request public is unusual in an ongoing investigation that has not yet been presented to a grand jury, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare told CNN. “That is not something that we see the FBI or any federal agency do,” he said. “[It] is truly unique in my 20 years of doing this.” According to Teare, the move is “a red herring that really has no bearing on a death investigation.”

The family, who at the time were preparing the wake for a father killed by an ICE agent’s gunfire a week earlier, did not comment on the federal agency’s allegation. Instead, a response came from the immigration lawyer representing Víctor Salgado, who was riding in the passenger seat of the van.

In a statement sent to EL PAÍS, Ruby L. Powers said her client had explained that the bags contained granulated salt, which workers mix with lemon and water as a homemade electrolyte drink to stay hydrated in Texas’s extreme heat. “It is not methamphetamine or any other illicit substance,” she said.

The lawyer said they requested an “expedited” evaluation of the substance so that the names of the four immigrants in the vehicle “could be cleared.”

The three passengers traveling to work with Salgado Araujo in the van on July 7, 2026, were José Trinidad Rojas, 51; Daniel Tirado Pantoja, 43; and Víctor Salgado, 44. On Wednesday, Teare confirmed that they had been designated material witnesses in a criminal case, enabling them to apply for a visa that would protect them from deportation. All three remain in the ICE detention facility to which they were transferred following the operation in which Lorenzo Salgado was killed.

The substance’s nature also should have “no bearing on why Mr. Salgado and the other three individuals [in the van] were targeted,” and have “no bearing whatsoever on whether or not the use of force that killed Mr. Salgado was justified,” Teare said.

Two hours after the wake began, Lorenzo Salgado Jr. took the microphone and thanked those present for their support. He then asked that only relatives remain in the chapel. Shortly afterward, Salgado’s youngest son and several of his siblings were seen leaving in vehicles bearing Mexican consular plates. For that Thursday, the public farewell to Lorenzo Salgado Araujo had come to an end.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition