El Monte educator killed in Mexico honored with name on freeway
A section of the 60 Freeway in the San Gabriel Valley is being named after slain El Monte educator Bobby Salcedo.
Salcedo, an assistant principal and school board member, was visiting relatives in Gomez Palacio in the Mexican state of Durango in December 2009 when he and five friends were yanked from a bar, killed execution-style and dumped in a field.
The killing of a U.S. elected official with no ties to drug trafficking resonated as a symbol of the wide reach of Mexico's drug violence.
State Assemblyman Mike Eng (D-Monterey Park) wrote a resolution last year designating the 60 Freeway from Atlantic Boulevard in Monterey Park to the border of Rosemead as the Roberto "Bobby" Salcedo Memorial Highway and plans to announce the dedication at a news conference Tuesday morning.
Before his death at age 33, Salcedo rose rapidly to become a civic activist and a leader in the fight for access to higher education, Eng noted in a news release.
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-- Tony Barboza
Photo: Andy Fernandez wipes a tear from his face at El Monte City Hall on Jan. 1, 2010, where a photo of slain El Monte school board member Bobby Salcedo and his wife was on display. Credit: Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times
EDITOR'S PICKS:
why is he getting his name on the freeway? That's stupid. Because he was killed in Mexico? Since when did dying get your name on a freeway? Is it because he was aprincipal? So what. That's his job. If he gets his name on a freeway then everyone who dies, or at least gets murdered, should get their name on a freeway. Now every freeway is going to have some persons name on it. Ridiculous.
Posted by: tornadoes28 | April 19, 2011 at 08:01 AM
What was Salcedo doing in a bar at midnight in one of Mexico's most notoriously violent cities, hmm??
Posted by: Mark | April 19, 2011 at 09:59 AM
If we named freeways after every American killed in Mexico during the last couple of years we would soon run out of freeways. This is a silly political move and I am against it. Stupid politicians.
Posted by: Marley | April 19, 2011 at 10:49 AM
Of course, it's posturing. Who cares? Let the family have the remembrance.....as long as it doesn't incur tax-payer costs. If we have to fund this past say, $100, then I'm getting a little warm. By the way, representatives like Eng are EXACTLY what we California "informed and educated" constituents deserve. Nothing less.
Posted by: P-FUNK | April 19, 2011 at 12:20 PM