30 Time June 20/June 27, 2022
Julian moreno was waTering
plants in his yard when he heard rapid,
loud booms on the morning of May 24.
At first, he thought it was noise from
nearby construction. But people began
screaming and running toward Robb El-
ementary School, a block away from his
home. He dropped his hose and made
his way toward the gunshots as quickly
as his 80-year-old body could take him.
“I knew Lexi was in there,” he says,
his voice breaking. “It was like a punch
in the gut.”
By that evening, Moreno had con-
firmation that his 10-year-old great-
granddaughter, Alexandria “Lexi” An-
iyah Rubio, died in the mass shooting
that took the lives of 18 other children
and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas. The
little girl he used to pick up from school
each day, whom he’d watch play base-
ball, and who dreamed of being a law-
yer, was gone.
“There is an emptiness,” Moreno
says, putting a hand toward his chest.
“Heartache. Trying to process why or
how it happened.”
Moreno is far from the only person
in the community processing grief. Al-
most no one in Uvalde, a small town of
about 16,000, was untouched by the
elementary-school massacre.
In the days after the shooting,
Uvalde residents built makeshift me-
morials throughout town in parks,
parking lots, and storefront windows
for the victims—mostly 9- and 10-year-
old children, and the teachers, ages 48
and 44. Some of the kids were on the
honor roll and loved TikTok and You-
Tube. Alithia Ramirez, 10, dreamed of
going to art school, according to her
obituary, and Eliahna “Ellie” Garcia, 9,
‘There is an emptiness.’
Uvalde shooting victim Lexi Rubio’s great-
grandfather remembers her 10 years of life
By Jasmine Aguilera/Uvalde, Texas
▷
Moreno sits at the Primera Iglesia
Bautista in Uvalde, Texas, on
May 28, four days after his great-
granddaughter Lexi Rubio was killedmother Kimberly Rubio shared on
Facebook. “And I can try new foods
that are not in Uvalde.” Her favor-
ite food was pasta Alfredo. She was
a bit of a tomboy who loved baseball
and fishing. She was a proud fourth-
generation Texan, and was close to her
tight-knit Mexican American family.
Moreno used to pick Lexi up from
Robb Elementary School every day.
“That was my full-time, nonpay-
ing job,” he says. “One that I enjoyed
completely.”
Earlier on May 24, both of Lexi’s
parents, a journalist and a sheriff dep-
uty, were at Robb Elementary School to
watch her receive an honor roll award.
They celebrated her achievement, andaspired to become a teacher, family
members told the Los Angeles Times.
Lexi, a fourth-grader, wanted to
someday attend St. Mary’s Univer-
sity in San Antonio, Moreno says.
If she could visit one place in the
world, it would be Australia to “see
a kangaroo and a bunch of fun stuff,”
Lexi wrote in her journal, which herNATION
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