8-year-old migrant boy who died in U.S. custody laid to rest in Guatemala

Yalambojoch, Guatemala — Villagers in this remote indigenous community of western Guatemala did their best Sunday to give a proper farewell to Felipe Gomez Alonzo, the 8-year-old migrant boy who died in U.S. custody at a New Mexico hospital on Christmas Eve.

They held a candlelight vigil, draped his small white coffin with flowers and then carried him to his final resting place. Older sister Catarina scratched his name with a stick into a simple concrete headstone. Women in brightly embroidered shirts and skirts oversaw the last rites since many of the men in the village left for the U.S. long ago. Read More