Mother of slain immigrant arrives on LI to face accusedBY LAURA RIVERA AND DAVE MARCUS | laura.rivera@newsday.com
11:15 PM EST, February 16, 2009
The mother of an Ecuadorean immigrant stabbed and beaten to death in Patchogue last November arrived last night at Kennedy Airport from the South American country to face the teenagers accused of killing her son.

Crying and shaking, Rosario Lucero met her only other son, Joselo, 34, at the international arrivals area of the airport, where he waited with a bouquet of white roses and eucalyptus.

The two hugged and remained speechless for several minutes, except for Joselo's occasional, muffled outbursts of "Mi mama!"

Rosario Lucero, who had never been to the United States, plans to attend a hearing tomorrow where she'll likely see the seven teenagers accused of killing her son Marcelo, 37, on the night of Nov. 8.



Lucero arrived at Kennedy with her daughter Isabel, who also brought her son Isaac, 3.

"My nephew, my nephew," Joselo said, lifting the boy into the air. He then put his black jacket around his mother and they got into a car driven by Suffolk Police Sgt. Lola Quesada, a liaison to the Hispanic community who was born in Ecuador.

Today, on her first full day on Long Island, Lucero will attend an evening service honoring her son at the Congregational Church of Patchogue.

She also is expected to visit the site near the Patchogue train station where Marcelo was stabbed and beaten.

It has been three months since the family learned about Marcelo's death and attacks against other Hispanic immigrants in and near Patchogue. Last November, the Luceros held a funeral in their hometown of Gualaceo, which has sent scores of immigrants to Long Island.

At the airport last night, several Hispanic activists waited for Rosario Lucero to arrive at the airport, including members of organizations founded in the dead man's memory.

"It's so hard for a mother to come to a place where they ended her son's life," said Angel Borja, a former politician in Ecuador and a representative of the Lucero Foundation.

Fernando Mateo, president of another group, Hispanics Across America, said he and the Lucero family will be holding several Catholic Masses for Marcelo Lucero and demanding vigorous prosecution of all those who have hurt Hispanics in Suffolk and nearby areas.

"We want justice to be served for all of those who they attacked," he said.

Lucero's death made worldwide headlines late last year when immigrants' rights activists saw it as an example of widespread abuse against Hispanic immigrants.

The Rev. Dwight Lee Wolter, pastor of the Congregational Church in Patchogue, has invited a range of politicians and activists to tonight's service.

"The least we can do for Lucero's mother is get this started in a spiritual, healing, centered, holistic environment," he said last week.

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