Home to Rest : Donations Allow Southland Burial of 7 Killed in Mexico Explosion

Rosa Ocampo, surrounded by weeping relatives, sang Christian hymns and prayed Friday as she buried seven members of her family who perished recently in a freak explosion during a Mexican vacation.

“I didn’t come here to say goodby to the children,” said the 62-year-old La Puente woman, mother of two of the dead and grandmother of four. “I came to say I’m going to join them soon.”

Ocampo’s family was passing through a northern Mexican town in their motor home June 23 when a gas leak inside the vehicle triggered a fiery blast, leaving only three survivors.

The trip had been the family’s first international vacation, and they had planned to return an elderly aunt to her native Yucatan Peninsula.

The accident killed the aunt, 85-year-old Serafina Quintal; two of Rosa Ocampo’s daughters, Gina Garcia and Maritza Ocampo; and Garcia’s four sons--Anthony, Ricardo, Ruben and Joe. Surviving were Garcia’s husband, Jose Garcia, their daughter, Rosy, and Maritza Ocampo’s boyfriend, Gerardo Macias Guerrero.

At first, family members said they could not afford to bring the deceased back to California for a funeral, and probably would bury them in Tijuana. But after more than $60,000 was donated in their name to the family’s parish, radio station KFWB and Spanish-language television station KVEA Channel 52, the family had enough funds to return the victims’ cremated remains to Los Angeles.

Some of the donated money also will help pay for hospital bills for 14-year-old Rosy Garcia, who was badly burned in the explosion and is undergoing skin grafts at Sherman Oaks Burn Center.

Before the burial Friday in Rowland Heights, St. Martha’s Catholic Church in Valinda--the family’s parish--held a Mass in Spanish for the dead. Next to the casket that contained the remains of all seven victims was a floral replica of the accordion that 15-year-old Anthony used to play during 9 o’clock Mass every Sunday, as his father, Jose Garcia, accompanied him on the guitar.

“Let us learn from this tragedy, from the sadness, to better our own lives,” Father Michael Rocha, an associate pastor, told the congregation. “We offer this Mass not just for the brothers and sisters who have died but for each other. . . . There is a simple lesson here that God calls us at any time he chooses.”

Jose Garcia, who relatives said was under sedatives, sat quietly in the front pew, occasionally bursting into tears. He said only a few words during the eulogy.

At the cemetery, several of Anthony Garcia’s football teammates from Workman High School in the City of Industry--wearing black armbands--laid a football on top of the casket, amid bouquets of red and white carnations. It read: “R.I.P. Anthony.”

As they looked on, family members--some of whom had planned to go on the road trip themselves--said they still had not recovered from shock.

“I still think they’re on vacation and they’re going to come back,” said Julio Ocampo, 16, whose two sisters died. “I was supposed to be there. I had everything packed. But at the last minute I decided not to go. They took my sister (Maritza) instead.”