About 300 people filled a Queens community center Saturday night to mourn Gabriel Siguencia, 22, one of three construction workers killed when a three-story building collapsed into a vacant lot in Brooklyn on Wednesday. Eight people died in the collapse in total.
The memorial was held at Alianza Ecuatoriana Internacional in Corona, a nonprofit serving Ecuadorian and Latin American immigrants. Siguencia, who lived in the Bronx, had come to the United States legally less than two years ago from Ecuador. He left behind a girlfriend and a 3-year-old son who still live there.
“A very loving, very cheerful man, just as you see him in the video,” his father, Luis Siguencia, told reporters in Spanish. “He was always smiling. He had so much love to give. He had many years of life still ahead of him.”
Siguencia had worked for the construction company for only a week before he was killed. His father said he was saving money to marry his girlfriend, baptize his son, and eventually bring his family to the United States.
“He was working to save up money, to get married, have his child baptized, and bring them here because he didn’t want them to go through the same process he went through when I came here,” Luis said. “He didn’t want to leave his son behind or have him end up alone, so that’s why he was working.”
Luis last saw his son the day before the collapse. He recalled his son urging him to rest instead of working.
“He said to me, ‘Dad, take care of yourself — go home and rest. Don’t work tomorrow, you need to look after your health,'” Luis recalled. “He gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek and said, ‘Dad, I love you. Go home and rest. Do you want me to take you? Are you sure you can drive?’ Yes, son, I’m fine. Those are the last words I remember from him.”
Siguencia was working at a neighboring site at 2625 Bedford Avenue when the building next door collapsed into rubble. His family says they are still searching for answers as to why work was happening on that building at all.
“They weren’t supposed to be working on that building. It looks like that building had a lot of violations. We’re very confused as to why the construction was ongoing,” Siguencia’s stepsister, Kayla Chamborazado, said.
Luis Siguencia is now calling for accountability from the city and the companies involved.
“I would hold the city and the companies responsible for my son’s death,” he said. “What I am asking for is justice for my son and for everyone who was working at that construction site.”
Siguencia’s mother, Maria Yupa, echoed the demand.
“First and foremost, I ask God to give me the strength to keep going,” she said. “I also call upon the authorities to ensure that justice is served for my son’s death — my son was killed.”
