SAN ANTONIO – Natalie Garza never thought she’d have to build an ofrenda for her sister, Yulissa.
“We want to keep remembering her,” Garza said. “Her life was taken too short.”
Yulissa Valero, 26, died earlier this year in a crash. Her family is using Día de los Muertos to honor and remember her.
“Someone made a mistake,” Angela Rodriguez, Yulissa’s cousin, said. “Now we have to deal with a loss.”
Yulissa Valero and two others were driving on a highway on Jan. 13. Valero rode in the front passenger seat, according to her family.
According to San Antonio police, a wrong-way driver hit them in their vehicle head-on. SAPD arrested and charged the driver on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.
“I miss her very much,” Frances Valero, Yulissa’s mom, said.
Since 2017, the Texas Department of Transportation said that Texas leads the nation in fatal and wrong-way crashes.
For DWI crashes, statistics for Texas show that three people on average die per day. Garza said her family is asking for people to think twice before drinking and driving.
“You can take somebody else’s life,” Garza said.
Día de los Muertos is a hard time for the family, but her loved ones hope it brings them closer to Yulissa’s spirit.
“That’s how we always feel her around here through the memories,” Rodriguez said.
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