Members of the Dominican Republic community in Hudson County are rallying together to help the friends and relatives of the victims of American Airlines Flight 587, which crashed into a Queens neighborhood soon after takeoff last Monday morning. The crash killed all 260 people on board as well as seven on the ground.
About 90 percent of the passengers on the flight, which was en route to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, were of Dominican descent. Some of the victims had family members who live in Hudson County, including well-known Dominican recording artist Cuco Valoy, the long-time Guttenberg resident who lost his daughter and three grandchildren in the crash.
The popular salsa and merengue star Valoy spent most of the past week trying to make arrangements to have his family gathered together to pay homage to the victims.
"My daughter was a wonderful person, very dedicated to her children and her family," said Valoy through an interpreter. "We feel so much pain knowing that we lost her and her children so tragically and knowing that we’ll never see them again. You feel so much pain when these things happen to someone else. When it happens to your family, it hurts so much more."
Valoy said that his daughter, Norma Guzman, 43, and her three children, Miguel, 17, Glenda, 15, and Johnny, 8, spent last Saturday together before his daughter, who lived in the Bronx, planned to travel to the Dominican Republic for the first time in over a decade.
"You never think you’re going to lose your family," Valoy said. "You think they’re always going to be there. This is so sad for all of us."
Although funeral plans for Valoy’s family have not been determined at press time, several other local residents are looking into the possibility of having funeral services for their loved ones in the Dominican Republic, facing the high cost of making such arrangements.
Jorge Valdivia of North Bergen lost five members of his family, an aunt and four cousins, who had just visited his family two days before the fateful crash.
"This is all too unbelievable," Valdivia said. "My aunt was going back to the Dominican with gifts for my mother and my family and now she’s gone. I don’t know what we’re going to do. We can’t afford to bury everyone back home. We’re going to need help. I’m just too stunned by all of this."
Valdivia was one of several locals who have spent so much time at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan, which has been set up as a grief center and identification location for the families of the victims.
The Javits Center has also been providing families with the names and numbers of organizations that are willing to help defray the cost of burials, both in the United States and at home in the Dominican Republic.
Weehawken resident Genaro Moran lost his younger brother, Francisco Diaz Moran, a livery cab driver from the Bronx.
Moran told Associated Press reporters that his brother was traveling back home to visit the American Consulate in the Dominican Republic in an attempt to get visas for his wife and his 2-year-old twin sons.
"I feel terrible," Moran told AP. "Last week he asked me if I think it’s important that he go to give support for his wife and I said yes. I can’t believe it. I still don’t believe my brother died."
Moran is now trying to obtain visas for his brother’s wife and children. He hopes that they can get them in time for his brother’s burial. Moran plans to bury his brother in the United States.
Authorities say it could take weeks before the bodies of the crash victims are released to family members. According to published reports in the Dominican Republic, President Hipolito Mejia has appointed a commission to help people bring back the remains of family members who died in the crash.
Jersey City mourns
Jersey City resident Tirso de la Cruz also was devastated by the crash. He lost his father, Leonte, 77; brother, Leonardo, 52; sister-in-law, Clara, 47; niece, Carla, 13; and nephew, Glen, 19.
The Jersey City-based Alliance for the Development of the Dominican-American Community in Hudson County has about 400 members, all dedicated to helping the victims of this horrific tragedy.
"Those were our brothers and sisters who perished in that crash," said Wesley Cruz, the executive director of the Alliance. "We want to show the people of the Dominican Republic that in this time of grief, we are with them, even if we are here in the United States. And we want to show all the people of Hudson County that this is a time to stay together, Dominicans and Dominican-Americans."
Cruz helped to organize a candlelight vigil for the victims last Saturday night in Jersey City. He also said that the group is raising funds to help the victims.
Unfortunately, there have been other obstacles that the victims are dealing with. Apparently, several of the victims were in the United States either illegally or on expired temporary visas, so the U.S. Immigration and Naturalized Services are checking into those cases. The Rev. Al Sharpton has made a plea on behalf of the victims that would grant Dominicans who are in the country illegally a "one-time travel certificate" that will allow family members a chance to go back to the Dominican Republic for the funerals and still return to the United States.
INS officials insist that such an act would require a bill from the U.S. Congress.
"We will do whatever has to be done to make sure these people are not deported," said Fernando Mateo, the leader of Allianza Dominicana. "We will stand and protest."
There are also several other organizations and businesses that are looking to help people cope with the disaster.
Allianza Dominicana is the New York-based organization that is also helping to raise money. The United Way of Essex and Hudson Counties have also begun to collect funds to help the victims as well.
Cruz said that anyone who is willing to make a donation to help the families can go to any branch of Banco Popular in New York and New Jersey and specify that the money go to the "Ayuda a las Victimas Del Vuelo 587" account.