Juanita Colunga, left, mother of U.S. Army Spc. Zeferino Colunga, who was serving in Iraq when he contracted an illness that killed him, and her daughter, Teresa Colunga, weep during a graveside mariachi memorial service in Bellville, Texas, to mark the first anniversary of Spc. Colunga's death. Nikon D2H, 70-200mm lens, f5.6 @ 1/500, ISO 200.
U.S. Army Specialist Zeferino Colunga happily lived the life of a soldier in Iraq, maintaining Blackhawk helicopters and being a good friend to his fellow soliders. He played soccer with them, and always volunteered a helping hand in both personal and other matters.But Spc. Colunga died on Aug. 6, 2003, mere days after contracting a sickness that his young and powerful body could not overcome.
San Antonio Express-News reporter Scott Stroud and I, photographer Billy Calzada, recently drove to Bellville, Texas, where we met a young woman, Teresa Colunga, 20, younger sister of Spc. Colunga. While other girls her age are going to the mall, obsessed about social dating and attending college, Teresa spends her days caring for her family's modest trailer, their home for many years. Now she lives there alone. Her only brother will not be returning, and quite possibly, neither will her parents.
She lives alone because four months after Spc. Colunga's death, her father, Zeferino Colunga Sr., was deported for being an illegal immigrant because he lost his status as a legal resident when he was convicted of a drug offense. Her mother, Juanita Colunga, now divides her time between the Bellville family trailer where Teresa lives and Matamoros, Mexico, where the senior Colunga lives a meager life in a ramshackle storefront that has no running water or air conditioning.
His eyes tear up when he explains his greatest frustration. He wants to visit his son's grave in Bellville, but he can't.
Meanwhile, Teresa Colunga works the phones, looking for answers about her brother's death and trying to get her father's case heard so that he may return to the U.S. She doesn't believe that he died of leukemia, which has been given as the official reason. She believes the leukemia, or whatever actually killed him, was caused by the anthrax vaccines that deployed soliders have been administered.
Above, Juanita Colunga is comforted by daughter Teresa Colunga while touching a portrait of her son, U.S. Army Spc. Zeferino Colunga, at the National Shrine of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle in San Juan, Texas on June 26, 2004. Spc. Colunga died on Aug. 6, 2003, after becoming ill while serving with the Second Armored Cavalry Regiment in Iraq.
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| Teresa Colunga, 20, ponders her brother's death. | Zeferino and Juanita Colunga in Mexico. |
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©2004 Billy Calzada