From Martin Castro
There are no words to describe the hurt I feel for this loss. My brother and I shared a lot of adventures together when we were young. I remember walking to our grandparents house and walking through a cemetery where we would pick up this cross that fell all the time. Every single time we walked through there it was knocked over. The same one!
There was another time on our same walk to our grandparents that we encountered a German Shepard. It never barked at us and it seemed friendly and all of a sudden it bit Chava in the calf and we had to throw rocks at it to let him go!
Another memory I have of my older brother is when he taught me to fight. He’d make me fight with the kids from the neighborhood.
There was a time that we were going to one of his base ball games and he was showing off because he was the pitcher. He saw a bird on a tree and told me... I can kill that bird with one hit. I didn’t believe him and sure enough he threw the rock right at the bird and hit it.
There was a time when my brother saved my life. I’ll never forget that. My brother was a great swimmer. We would go swimming at a canal and he could hold his breath under water forever! In this occasion I was watching how he’d stay under water and as I was watching him I slipped and fell in and he saw me fall in for a split second. The current was so strong that I could not swim back. Chava dove in without hesitation and he grabbed me and put me on his shoulders. The current was up to my chest and I was holding on to Chavas head that was under water and he held his breath that entire time until he got me to the edge.
I remember when we would stayed at my grandparents we’d sleep on the floor. One night I remember a scorpion crawled onto Chavas chest and we freaked out. We did not sleep well that night. In the morning we woke up and I remember we went to fetch water from the water hole. We walked a mile to get water back then. Chava carried two big buckets and I had my two smaller buckets. Victoria and Jose would send us to get the water and send us to cut pear cactus for breakfast. They would make us the pear cactus with red chili and it was so good.
There are so many more memories I could go on forever. I will miss my brother greatly and I pray for you all. Always. Love you guys.