Luz Zavala is a mother with many questions – and the determination to find answers – after her 21-year-old son Juanito Lopez took his own life last week.
Suicide, unfortunately, is not uncommon among the young, and in fact, several sources have noted a recent rash of these tragedies in the Aurora community.
What’s not so common is for surviving loved ones to talk publicly about their grief, especially when it is still so raw.
Zavala, however, is on a mission.
“I want to understand what happened to my son, and also to help others so they do not go through the same thing,” the 48-year-old woman tells me a few days after Juanito’s death.
That includes Zavala’s own understanding of why her youngest of four – born just minutes behind his identical twin Erick – battled depression, more so after graduating in 2023 from East Aurora High School, where he was an honor student who loved to read, draw and help others in any way he could.
After a stint with AmeriCorps, the young man struggled to “figure out where he would fit in,” his mother says. He cared deeply about people, no matter who they were, she and his twin brother insist when we met at Chemas Herbalife Nutrition, a health cafe on New York Street in Aurora Zavala opened a decade ago.
She and Juanito, who ran the business together, were close.
”He was with me all the time,” Zavala says, “ … eating with me, laughing with me.”
“Fighting with you,” adds Erick with a smile, noting the “spirited debates” his mother and twin would get into because they were truly kindred spirits.
More Top Picks Best Bottle Warmers For Breast Milk
The entire family, including older siblings Jose and Lupita, are reeling from this sudden loss.
Erick Lopez, an E-4 specialist in the Army stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, “had an off feeling” when he awoke the morning of Sept. 14. While working on vehicles that “Motorpool Monday,” a call came from the cousin who found him indicating a crisis was unfolding. But it wasn’t until he was at lunch that Lopez got that detailed phone call, throwing him into “something out of a nightmare.”
Nearly a week later, he tells me, “It feels like a movie, a very dark movie.”
It’s not like the family was unaware Juanito was struggling with depression.
“I was afraid every single day,” admits Zavala. “He was on medication and meeting with a therapist twice a week.”
Yet she can’t help but wonder if any of that helped.
And how could a young man so passionate about helping others, who loved his family so deeply, do something that would hurt so profoundly and permanently?
“That’s why I ask for help,” says Zavala. “I need to know exactly what depression is, what causes it.”
Others could benefit from additional education as well, she insists, noting her health store – and to a lesser extent, a similar property on Clark Street – have become gathering hubs, especially for moms looking for support and guidance.
More than anything, Zavala wants something positive to come from her son’s death, which could already be happening.
When Suicide Prevention Services therapist and educator Jennifer Orta, a first-generation Mexican-American who has lived her entire life on the East Side of Aurora, heard about Juanito’s death, she immediately reached out to his loved ones.
Because of the family’s involvement in the Hispanic community, Juanito was well-known, says Orta, who met with them last week and made sure there were resource pamphlets available at the young man’s wake.
As a member of the Aurora Hispanic Heritage Advisory Board, Orta is also talking to the city about hosting an event to bring the topic out in the open and to discuss “where do we go from here.”
There’s no question the Hispanic community would benefit, says Orta, acknowledging, even in her own family, that mental health is a tough subject to broach. A struggling young person may be viewed as lazy or unmotivated, for example, while parents who came to America turn to prayer rather than professional help when they see a problem.
Add language and cultural barriers, lack of community support and fear of government intervention, she continues, and it’s easy for a young person to suffer alone.
More Top Picks Dowinx Retro Series Ls 6689s
It’s that silence Juanito’s mother intends to help shatter.
“I need to be strong … I want to find answers and help others find answers,” she says. “I don’t want to feel this pain.”
Her pleas for help, public and otherwise, will hopefully make a difference.
“This is a family that has always taken care of their community,” says Orta. “Now it is our turn to help them.”