An Opening Ceremony Turns Solemn

The opening of a gleaming new school in an overcrowded Santa Ana neighborhood would typically be cause for celebration. But Thursday’s dedication of Manuel Esqueda Elementary turned into a memorial service for its namesake, a Latino community leader who died this week of complications from cancer.

Hundreds of students, educators, neighborhood residents, politicians and family members gathered in the school’s auditorium to honor Esqueda, who rose from poverty to success in business and philanthropy.

“I know we come with mixed emotions, to both celebrate and honor a wonderful individual, Manuel Esqueda, and to celebrate the opening of a school so badly needed in this community,” said Audrey Yamagata-Noji, Santa Ana Unified School District’s board president. The school “is a living tribute to [Esqueda], who daily touched our lives, and will forever touch the lives of these children and the community.”

Esqueda, 83, died Tuesday -- the first day of school -- while recovering from surgery.

“There was a sense in Manuel ... that his work on Earth had been finished,” said Jaime Soto, auxiliary bishop for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, who sprinkled the audience, pupils and school walls with holy water.

Esqueda was raised in Santa Ana’s working-class neighborhood of Delhi and learned English at an elementary school that lacked heat and light, and where the principal would wash students’ mouths out with soap if they spoke Spanish.

Esqueda served on an aircraft carrier during World War II that was sunk by the Japanese. As he clung to debris in the chilly water for nearly four hours, Esqueda said he had promised God that, if rescued, he would do something to help mankind.

He was -- and did.

Returning home, Esqueda became a successful banker and kept his promise -- establishing organizations that have provided more than $900,000 in college scholarships to more than 1,200 Orange County students. He also spearheaded literacy efforts and donated tens of thousands of dollars in artwork to a Santa Ana community center.

“So as long as the man upstairs keeps me here, I’m going to work,” Esqueda said in an interview this year. “It’s something that my wife would want me to do. Someone has to do it. Nothing happens unless you make it happen.”

Until the day before he died, Esqueda was involved in planning Thursday’s dedication. The event was scheduled for October but was moved to early September because of his failing health.

Speakers, some of whom had known Esqueda for decades, remembered him as a passionate, plain-spoken man who wanted to lift his community.

“I’m a middle-aged man, and he used to tell me to shine my shoes,” said Santa Ana schools Supt. Al Mijares. “Present yourself well,” he would say.

The $32-million school, on about 8 acres at Warner Avenue and South Main Street, has 450 students and a capacity of 1,200. It has 48 classrooms wired to the Internet and a high-tech auditorium that can be converted to an outdoor amphitheater. The school’s library is named for Esqueda’s wife, Dolores, who died last year.

During the dedication, a group of second-graders sang a song about Esqueda, ending, “In our hearts you’ll always be.”

Several of Esqueda’s past scholarship recipients attended, including Orange County Superior Court Judge Frederick P. Aguirre.

“The legacy lives on,” Aguirre said. “The students here at this fine temple of learning will be Manuel Esqueda’s legacy.”

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A visitation will take place from 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Saddleback Chapel Mortuary in Tustin and a funeral Mass at 10 a.m. Monday at Our Lady of Guadalupe (Delhi) Church in Santa Ana. A reception will take place midafternoon Monday at the Delhi Community Center in Santa Ana.