‘Life happens here’: How Houston’s changing East End neighborhood rallied after an ICE killing

The murder of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo shook Magnolia Park, but strengthened bonds in a barrio grappling with gentrification and a history of police violence

The vigil on Canal Street has grown every night since 7 July. It began when two neighbors nailed white roses to a utility pole. Within hours, streams of people brought candles and carnations. By the seventh night, the sidewalk was enveloped by votive candles painted with the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexican flags flapping alongside Texas ones, and a wooden cross ringed with photographs of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, the 52-year-old husband and father who was shot and killed by ICE on this corner of Houston's Magnolia Park neighborhood.

Magnolia Park is a tight-knit community. Neighbors know each other and they help each other," said JoAnna Rodriguez, co-founder of the non-profit Magnolia Park Arts and Community, housed two blocks away from the site of the shooting. So when we heard what had happened, our first reaction was, Who was it?'"