SAN ANTONIO — Roberto Cristian Rodriguez has spent the past month in San Antonio’s triple-digit weather trying to beautify a memorial for the 53 people who died in a tractor-trailer on the Southwest Side last year. 

He was hammering nails and hanging up solar-powered lamps above the 53 crosses wrapped in flags.

“I’m putting up the lamps, I’m painting [the crosses,]” Rodriguez said. 

He wants these lamps to shine a light on this catastrophe and honor the lives lost for the families who can’t be there. Rodriguez immigrated from Honduras and survived similar conditions on his journey to the states. 

“It was the will of God directly, the will of God. It was not my time to meet him,” Rodriguez explained as sweat pellets dripped down his face. 

Rodriguez has lived in San Antonio for 23 years, and every photo of the victims reminds him of the sacrifices he made and the loved ones he’s left behind like his parents who are in their late 80s. 

“It’s been very difficult, very difficult, I haven’t seen them in 14 years,” Rodriguez said. “I’m trying to see if there’s an opportunity to get them visas so they can come over already” 

Rodriguez was friends with some of the migrants who died in the trailer. 

“Alejandro and Fernando were brothers and Margie was Alejandro’s girlfriend,” Rodriguez said. 

This tragedy also broke the hearts of Texans like Danny Farias, who showed up to the site as Rodriguez was hanging lamps and fixing flags. 

“They all had a dream, they all had a dream for a better life, a better world,” Farias said. “It’s just overwhelming. It’s just something that didn’t have to happen.” 

Farias, who has never written a song in his life, wrote a canción (song) called “Corrido 53.” 

“That’s what we trying to do, we are just trying to make a positive influence in a very, very dark world we live in these days,” Farias said. 

David Escalante, a legendary Tejano and Conjunto producer and songwriter, says he was moved by the lyrics. 

“God gave him the strength and the wisdom and the power, and the words to write and record this song for the families,” Escalante said.  

Rodriguez enjoyed the song and played it on his phone, but most importantly he’s happy no one else has forgotten about the 53 migrants. 

“Everyone’s feeling the pain of this situation and so I’m not the only one,” Rodriguez said.