Cpl. Jose Angel Garibay

O.C. consoles the family of slain Marine

Friends and strangers alike offer comfort and aid to loved ones of Jose Angel Garibay, the first local military man to die in combat in the war in Iraq.

By JOEL ZLOTNIK, JEFF ROWE and BRIAN MARTINEZ

The Orange County Register

COSTA MESA – A Huntington Beach woman has offered her burial plot. A Santa Ana businessman wants this year's Cinco de Mayo celebration to honor the fallen Marine. And an Irvine fast-food chain doesn't want a mourning family to worry about meals.

The death of Marine Cpl. Jose Angel Garibay – the first from Orange County to be killed in combat in the Iraqi desert – has brought the war home. And as one family grieves the loss of its beloved son, brother and nephew, a much larger community has opened its arms to embrace them and the memory of a Marine who won't be coming home.

The Garibay family has been inundated with support this week from a steady stream of visitors. The family's humble west-side home has hosted friends and strangers alike bearing food and flowers and offering condolences, money and prayers. Garibay, 21, from Jalisco, Mexico, told his mother before he left that he wished he could become a U.S. citizen.

"I love the United States and want to be an American hero," his mother Simona Garibay recalled him saying.


KEY FACTS

The Garibays

Donations to the Garibay family may be sent to St. Joachim Church, 1964 Orange Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92627. Please write "Garibay family" on the correspondence.

Family and friends were planning a memorial parade Sunday in front of the family's home at 1013 Arbor St. in Costa Mesa. A time has not yet been set.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

The Newport Harbor Harbor High School graduate became a hero when he died Sunday near An Nasiriyah after Iraqi forces pretending to surrender ambushed Marines. A Huntington Beach attorney wants to fulfill Garibay's dream of citizenship.

Former Marine Donato Leombruni, 38, has offered to help the family fill out an application for posthumous citizenship. Immigration law allows citizenship for those in the armed services killed in the line of duty. Garibay was a legal U.S. resident, granted amnesty with his family.

"I read he was getting ready to apply for citizenship, and I want to help them do this to maybe show his mom how much we appreciate the sacrifice," said Leombruni.

State Assemblyman Lou Correa, D-Anaheim, said he hopes to bypass the bureaucracy and will work with local and federal legislators to grant Garibay citizenship. "It's kind of sad. We're losing American men and women; the least we can do is honor them by giving them the citizenship they want," Correa said.

Marge Shillington of Newport Beach came to the Garibay home Thursday, telling Simona she had a grandson in the Marine Corps and for Simona to please call her if there is anything she can do. Simona nodded, understanding few of Shillington's words in English but nonetheless comprehending, one mother to another.

"It's something everyone should do," Shillington said of why she went to the home of someone she never met.

Simona wore a red, white and blue "USA" button as she received and clearly took comfort from the visitors. "I'm surprised that my son is important to them, too," she said. Hearing the Garibay family initially wanted to bury Jose in Orange County, Bonnie Wyatt of Huntington Beach offered a burial plot her family has held for more than 30 years at Forest Lawn in Cypress.

"He gave everything for his country, and we are freer because of men like him," said Wyatt, 55, as she fought off tears. "We need to give our (service) men and women everything we can, and we have to help every way we can. With a little bit of love from a whole lot of people, maybe it will help his mother get through this." He will be buried in Riverside.

Sam Romero, a downtown Santa Ana businessman, will meet with other merchants today who are organizing an annual Cinco de Mayo Fiesta and ask them to consider honoring Garibay at the event. "He's an immigrant, a noncitizen who gave his life," Romero said. "It's not only Jose. Any time you hear of a young man killed, you feel for him and for the family, and being that he's a local, it hit me even harder."

A giant condolence card sits in the lobby of El Pollo Loco's Irvine corporate headquarters for employees to sign. The company plans to send it to the Garibays early next week along with gift certificates for its restaurants.

"This is a local boy from our community, and we wanted to do something to extend our sympathy," said spokeswoman Julie Weeks. "He is so close to where we live and work that we wanted to be able to convey in some small way our compassion for what his family is experiencing."

About 39 third-graders from two Santa Ana Unified School District classes made condolence cards to Simona Garibay on Thursday, teacher Jill Brimmer said.

"Yo lamento," wrote one student. It means, "I lament."

Brimmer said she would hand deliver the cards. Ada Jackson of Costa Mesa baked a spice cake filled with cream cheese for the Garibay family. She planned to deliver it today, along with a pot of menudo and a salad. "If he was willing to die for millions of people, the least I can do is take his family some food and do what I can to make them happy," she said. "In times like these, Americans need to stick together."

Anne Ima lives in the neighborhood and came with a card. "The war really hits home when someone in your back yard dies," she said.

As did everyone else, she left in tears.