Remembering our Jorge
On Tuesday, Aug. 5 at 11 a.m., a funeral will be celebrated at St. Edmund Church for a young Guatemalan migrant who died July 25 as a result of a tragic car accident.
Jorge Borrayo was only 25, had just received his work permit, and had a job interview scheduled on Monday, July 21 but the accident occurred the night before. He was in the Trauma ICU at Cook County Hospital until life support was removed the following Friday. His friend Hector and his “Chicago family” were with him when he passed.
Jorge and Hector received services at Oak Park Migrant Ministry’s Centro San Edmundo last year but then returned to volunteer with us on a regular basis. Jorge and Hector moved from being one of those served to being servers themselves and they were an intimate part of our volunteer community. They worked in the men’s clothing room, embodying “donations with dignity” by helping the men select clothes that fit well and looked good on them.
So many diverse communities are coming together to celebrate this young man’s life. He was the bridge between the volunteers and the migrants. Although raised Catholic, he and Hector were members of a small Episcopalian congregation near the shelter where they first landed in Chicago.
Rev. Amity Carrubba of that community will be a co-presider at the funeral along with Father Carl Morello from the Oak Park Catholic Community.
We have been in frequent communication with his mother in the rural Guatemalan community of Esquintla, and we are incorporating their traditions and spirituality in the service by including a poster of their patroness, the Immaculate Conception (the poster is being printed by Sign Express, just down the street on Oak Park Avenue) as well as photos of the memorial that the family set up in their home. She keeps telling me how comforting it is for her that his community in Chicago is mourning him as well and will be holding a funeral service. Jorge’s cousin will be part of the opening procession, connecting us more with the family.
MaDonna Thelen of Unity Temple wrote and will lead the intercession prayers.
The bilingual funeral will be videotaped and posted on the parish YouTube channel for the family. The Guatemalan flag will be placed on top of his casket and the presider will wear a stole from Guatemala.
Members of the migrant and volunteer communities will be pallbearers. Food for the reception afterward is coming from everywhere.
It is inspiring to see how migrants and volunteers, Catholics and Protestants, a rural community in Guatemala and a wealthy suburb of Chicago are coming together to celebrate the life of a young man who made the difficult trip to the U.S. to escape difficult conditions, worked hard and was generous and friendly to all, but whose life was cut short just as things were falling into place for him and his friend Hector.
When Jorge was still in ICU, we set up a little table in the hallway at Centro San Edmundo with a picture of him, some flowers, a candle, and some paper so people could write a little note of love and support. The volunteers wrote messages, but so did a number of migrants who remembered how he helped them select nice clothes in the men’s clothing room.
Migrants mourning a migrant from a different country in a different country.
Celine Woznica, an Oak Park resident, is a co-director of the Oak Park Migrant Ministry at Centro San Edmundo.
