Army Pvt. Ernesto R. Guerra, 19, Long Beach; Dies of Injuries in Humvee Accident in Baghdad

More than anything, Ernesto R. Guerra wanted to take care of his mother.

While serving in Iraq, the Army private made sure to send money home every month to support her and his 11-year-old brother, Juan.

And he arranged before he left to start the process of obtaining legal immigration status for his mother, who crossed from Mexico into the United States without permission two decades ago.

The 19-year-old California native couldn’t file the paperwork until he turned 21, but he signed it and wanted it ready so that no matter where he was in the world he could press forward.

Ironically, Guerra’s July 29 death from injuries suffered in a Humvee accident in Baghdad could fast-track that process.

Amelia Nieto, director of the Centro Shalom social services agency in Long Beach, said Army officers told Maria Valadez that as the mother of a soldier killed in action, her application for legalization would be expedited.

“This was his dearest wish. He was tired of her having to live in the shadows,” said Nieto, who has known the Long Beach family for a decade. “By dying in Iraq, he has accomplished what he wanted most.”

Guerra died two weeks shy of his 20th birthday and was buried last month with military honors in San Francisco del Rincon, Mexico. Valadez remains in central Mexico with her family, Nieto said.

An avid skateboarder, Guerra was polite and responsible, the man of the family after his father died in a 1988 car accident, Nieto said.

Guerra graduated last year from Cabrillo High School in Long Beach. Nieto said he was interested in military service from an early age and joined his high school’s Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps.

Still, Nieto said, it came as a shock to his family and friends when Guerra announced that he had joined the Army, signing up as a senior right at his high school campus. “My heart dropped when [Valadez] told me he was going,” Nieto said. “I told her he would be in my prayers.”

Nieto said Guerra last visited his family in Long Beach at Christmas, and that she had helped him file his taxes earlier this year while he was serving in Iraq.

Based at Ft. Stewart, Ga., he had just been promoted to E-2 status, one notch below private first class.

He was assigned to the 43rd Brigade Troops Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division.

Guerra had been in Iraq for seven months when the Humvee accident occurred in central Baghdad.

Nieto said that because Valadez was informed of her son’s death by an English-speaking Army officer, she could barely understand what she was being told. But Valadez understood enough to know that her son was dead and to track down Nieto, who helped guide her through the process of claiming his body and arranging for burial in Mexico.

Nieto said Guerra was buried next to his grandfather, and that Valadez was struggling to let him go and return to Long Beach.

“She’s having a hard time emotionally leaving there,” Nieto said. “She didn’t really understand the war, but she was very proud of him.”