Flowers and candles were placed around the Jefferson Boulevard meeting place where the vigil for Liegea Lopez was held. Photo by Emma Ruby
Hundreds of community members attended a candlelight vigil held at Levine’s on Jefferson Boulevard Monday night to honor the life of Liegea Lopez, a beloved neighborhood activist.
Lopez was involved in a car accident early Monday morning and died from her injuries. According to friends close to Lopez’s family, her car was hit head on by a wrong-way driver on Dowdy Ferry Road.
Lopez owned Bishop Barbers which she used as a home base for community projects.
Friends of Lopez said she often held and attended community events such as concerts, giveaways and cookouts in the parking lot of the department store Levine’s, where the vigil was held.
She was also heavily involved in efforts like encouraging community members to vote and supporting women who needed assistance.
“She gave a lot of her money, time and effort to all her events. She was a big giver,” JR Huerta, founder of Dallas Youth Sports and a friend of Lopez’s, said.
Huerta said his path often crossed with Lopez’s because of their mutual involvement in community activism.
Lopez’s annual back-to-school event was infamous. Each year at the event, which was held at the barbershop, hundreds of neighborhood children received backpacks full of school supplies and haircuts.
Balloons were released at the vigil for Liegea Lopez. Photo by Emma Ruby.
Liegea’s legacy as a mother was also referenced throughout the vigil.
“If there was one thing Gea loved it was her boys,” a friend of Lopez who spoke to the crowd said. “They were her world.”
City Council Member Chad West described speaking at the vigil as “the hardest speech he’s ever had to make.”
West said he had encountered Lopez through her activism, but the two had become close friends. West said he took his children to Bishop Barbers, so Lopez could cut their hair.
“All she cared about and what will live on is her love for the community,” West said.
Hilda Duarte, a friend of Lopez’s who organized and lead the vigil, described Lopez as a selfless and giving community leader.
Lopez and Duarte worked together in the Dallas chapter of LULAC, a civil rights organization for Latin-Americans.
“She was my right hand, I’m going to miss her,” Duarte said. “We’re going to keep working and persevering because that is what she would want.”
Duarte said she was in disbelief when she heard about the car accident, a sentiment that seemed to be shared by the large audience.
Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Omar Narvaez described Lopez’s death as “a hard loss.” Like West, Narvaez said he often saw Lopez advocating for the Oak Cliff and West Dallas community, and the two had become friends over the years.
“Our hearts ache tonight, they’ve ached all day. To wake up to the news that a pillar of this community, a daughter of Dallas, is no longer with us… honor Liegea by getting involved,” Narvaez said.
During the vigil, multiple friends and family members referenced Lopez’s love for Jefferson Boulevard.
“She owned Jefferson,” Duarte said.
Multiple calls were made to build a sculpture or rename a street in Lopez’s honor. West said he plans to get honorary street sign toppers put on signs near the location of her business.
A GoFundMe has been started to raise money for funeral funds and Lopez’s family.
“We have to think about her boys for the long run,” Huerta said of two of Lopez’s sons who are minors. “David, her youngest boy, was always with her. She might show up to an event and oh, there’d be David.”
Lopez was featured in the Advocate’s 2020 Fierce Females edition. To see what Lopez said being a Fierce Female meant to her, click here.
