A military ceremony took place today at the Homewood Memorial Gardens Cemetery for a veteran who died exactly 30-years ago in the heat wave that claimed more than 700 lives in Chicago.
Veterans were joined by the author of the book, “Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago,” and the filmmaker who made the documentary, “Cooked,” at the Potter’s Field where Emilio Aguirre was buried with others from the disaster.
Monica Stoy is a retired Army Captain.
“He survived the hell of World War Two and a POW camp only to die in a heatwave in Chicago in July 1995.”
Eric Klinenberg is the author of the book.
“When I found his personal effects in the year 2000, five years after I started looking into what happened to this city, to my city, I remember being floored.”
His personal effects, found in storage, included a Bronze Star certificate, military documentation and a picture of Aguirre in uniform.
“That alone shows you his pride in having served,” said veteran Charles Henderson, who fought in Afghanistan.
He spent years doing research that led to the ceremony and a headstone for Emilio Aguirre, who was born in Mexico, and became a US citizen after his service.
“This was someone who had lived an enormous life,” Klinenberg said, “and a meaningful and consequential life, someone who had touched so many, and there was something wrong, fundamentally wrong about the way his life ended.”
He said “there is some sense of justice for Emilio.”
Klinenberg said, “today we are not looking away, today we’re not in denial.”
He said he believes that for many years Chicago felt shame for the death of Aguirre and the hundreds of others who died alone in the heat.