Photo courtesy of Chad West
A mural depicting U.S. Army Spc. Vanessa Guillén went up at a Bishop Arts area business last week.
Irma Vargas, owner of Bella MedSpa DFW, commissioned Oak Cliff artist Alejandro Juarez to paint the mural at 211 S. Adams.
Bishop Barber Babes co-owner Liegea Lopez, who is one of The Advocate’s 2020 “Fierce Females,” teamed up with Vargas, Denise Benavides and Jessica Tafoya to organize several vigils for Guillén, including two in Trinity Groves, one at City Hall and one at Bella MedSpa.
Guillén is the Fort Hood soldier who went missing for over two months before her body was found hidden inside a large plastic box on the Central Texas Army base on June 30. Another Army soldier, 20-year-old Aaron David Robinson, is believed to have bludgeoned her to death. He took his own life when approached by police after Guillén’s body was found.
Protesters across the country are demanding that the Army and Fort Hood be held responsible for the death of Guillén and other soldiers who are killed on Army bases.
Searchers in June also found found the body of another Fort Hood soldier, Pfc. Gregory Morales, who went missing in August 2019, days before he was to be discharged. The Army declared him AWOL a month after his disappearance and, as in Guillén’s case, didn’t investigate until pressured by his family.
A banner at Bella MedSpa also calls for justice in the death of a Fort Bragg, North Carolina paratrooper, Spc. Enrique Roman Martinez, who was found dead in May after he went missing on a camping trip.
