WATSONVILLE — It has been a quarter-century since 9-year-old Jessica Cortez convinced her brother Jorge to leave their home and walk with her to a nearby panaderia on Salinas Road. It was a trip that would spell out their final moments.
They were confronted by suspected gang members and gunned down before they arrived at the shop. Police found Jessica clinging to life outside, lying in a puddle of her own blood.
Jorge, 16, suffered one gunshot before jumping for cover behind the counter inside, to no avail. The assailants chased him inside and shot him several more times.
The killings served as the catalyst for the Peace and Unity March one year later, during which participants walk through the streets of Watsonville in honor of loved ones lost to violence.
Hundreds of people are expected to attend the event in Watsonville on Sunday.
Jorge and Jessica’s mother Maria Cortez, now 68, said she is happy that the event has continued through the years.
“In a way it kind of helps me, because it makes me feel that the community has not forgotten my children,” she said through a translator in her Salinas home Tuesday.
Still, Cortez has never attended one of the marches. The memories, she said, are too painful.
Every morning, Cortez imagines Jorge and Jessica getting ready for school in the morning. It is an image that is almost tangible. Later, she envisages afternoons when they walk through her door after school.
“But they never do,” she said, crying. “For me, time has not continued. It feels like it was yesterday.”
Nobody was convicted in the children’s killings, said Andreina Salazar, Jorge and Jessica’s youngest sister, who was 2 at the time.
That’s a hard pill to swallow for Cortez.
“For me and my kids there was never any justice,” she said.
Watsonville City Councilman Felipe Hernandez, who helped organize the first march, said it was a way to bring together a community torn asunder by violence, even in times when that violence seems to have abated.
“We need to always continue things like this, despite almost four years without gang homicides, to remind us of the loss and remind us that as a community we must always strive for peace and unity,” he said.
Hernandez added that the community should support activities for young people such as school sports, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, mentoring programs, youth programs and skate parks.
“Watsonville is a working class community and parents often work until darkness,” he said. “Sometimes, it is after school activities that gives kids a sense of structure.”
Monterey County Supervisor Luis Alejo, who also founded the event, said he is proud it has continued for so long.
“The community has never forgotten them,” he said. “Their deaths spurred a peace movement in Watsonville that brought so many families, nonprofits, electeds, youth and the community together to work for peace along with our police department. Watsonville is now a model on the Central Coast of turning a community around for the better.”
It is not clear why the gang members targeted Jorge.
Police believe that he was the target of a gangland retaliation for an earlier shooting, which was reportedly sparked when a gang member vandalized the vehicle of a rival.
He may have been acquainted with the first shooter, thus marking him as a rival, police said.
Cortez described her son as a good kid who stayed out of trouble.
Whatever the reason for the shooting, Cortez said her memories of — and love for — her son is in no way diminished.
“For us parents or mothers, it doesn’t matter if your child is bad, evil,” she said. “You don’t accept that because you are their mother, they are your children and you love them regardless.”
Her message for young people who are considering joining a criminal street gang was straight and to the point.
“All I can say is, don’t, it’s not good,” she said. “To go and be part of a gang, you’re destroying yourself.”
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The 25th annual Peace and Unity March will begin at 11 a.m. Sunday at Watsonville City Plaza. Attendees will begin setting up altars at 10 a.m.
Participants will walk to an unnamed park at Salinas Road and Stender Avenue in Pajaro, which will be named Cortez Park in the children’s honor. A memorial bench and a Japanese Cherry Tree will also be unveiled during the ceremony.
