A Candle for Sergio Rios Jr. and his family, our family

This is and will always be Sergio Rios Jr., born and raised in our neighborhood; a soul who took care of every last one of us, including me when I was 16 years old in the pit cheering for Rage Against the Machine at Rock the Bells in 2007.

Seven years later, I was fortunate enough to take the lot of these photos during your birthday party at the “Black” bar on Santa Monica Blvd on October 24th, 2014, when you turned 24 years old just a few weeks ahead of me.

Now, there are countless people reeling and whose lives are upended mourning for you and Ricky; now, there are so many eyes across the city worn from tears, so many of our voices gripped by the salt, so many childhoods belonging to the next generation which will only get to hear about you and your other half’s light in every room we got to share with you all.

Now there’s this family you leave behind, and a lifetime of missing you facing us like Mount Wilson in the distance; for your boys, our brothers, now there’s this manhood unlike anything we could ever imagine in our boyhood.

But because I know you wouldn’t back down if the roles were reversed, I promise to take it on to the best of my ability; I trust with everyone else who loves you that you and your people’s name will never, ever be in vain so long as we have a chance to yell it out.

From our neighborhood to the top of Mount Wilson, this is and will always be Sergio Rios Jr.

J.T.