PLACENTIA : City Renames Center After Slain Student

Honoring a slain college student, about 40 people gathered Thursday to dedicate the Cathy Torrez Learning Center in the city’s historic downtown, Placita Santa Fe. The center was first dedicated last December, but after the stabbing death of the 20-year-old Torrez in February, the City Council decided to rededicate it in her honor.

Tina Lopez, Torrez’s sister, said the center could become a symbol of all the things her sister had hoped to achieve.

“Some people see a building here with walls and windows,” Lopez told the gathering. “What I see here will change the senseless (death) into something meaningful for the community, turning tragedy into hope.”

Torrez’s body was found in the trunk of her car on Feb. 19, one week after she failed to return home from her job at a nearby drugstore.

The Cal State Fullerton honor student was active in several community programs, which included teaching English and tutoring Spanish-speaking students at Valencia High School.

The Rev. Nick Saucedo, pastor of Placentia First Church of the Nazarene, compared the petite Torrez to the small storefront center. “It’s not an accident this center was named after Cathy Torrez,” Saucedo said. “I remember her as a mighty mite who wouldn’t give up. Well, we don’t have a spacious room here, but a little can go a long way.”

City officials hope to offer a variety of educational programs at the center. Migrant education and English-as-a-second-language classes are held there throughout the week, and a series on health care will begin later this month.

Lopez also hopes to start a Girl Scout program at the center, similar to one she started at the Whitten Community Center two years ago. “It would mean a lot to me to have a Girl Scout program at the center named for Cathy,” said Lopez, 23.

During the dedication, Mary Bennett, Torrez’s mother, helped unveil a plaque featuring a portrait of her daughter that will hang in the lobby of the center.

Beside Torrez’s high school graduation photograph is a brief biography that ends: “Although she is no longer here to realize that dream (of becoming a social worker), her memory and her belief in education and helping others will remain embedded in our hearts forever.”