Text by GOPALA VARADARAJAN and SOFIA ANTEBI
COMMEMORATING ERNESTO CRUZ’S IMPACT ON OUR COMMUNITY
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XUBERANT. Energetic. Optimistic. Palo Alto High School history teacher John Bungarden used these words to describe Campus Supervisor Ernesto Cruz, who passed away on Mar. 19. From ensuring students’ safety in his trusty golf cart to beaming his smile as they passed, Cruz will be remembered as a beloved campus supervisor and pillar of the Paly community. “Ernesto was one of the most genuinely kind people on the Paly campus,” Senior Class President Mathew Signorello-Katz said. “He went out of his way to make everyone’s day just a little
bit better.” on the soccer field, he became the friend Cruz grew up playing soccer in the of countless Paly students and staff, if not streets of El Salvador, his birthplace, but everyone. was forced to move to the Bay Area during “It always just made my day to know the Salvadoran Civil War. After tirelessly that I could rely and count on seeing this working to improve his super friendly guy English at the San Franevery day at school,” cisco Community Col- More than any job junior Elizabeth Fetlege, Cruz was hired in ter said. title, Ernesto was a 2004 as a Paly campus As campus susupervisor and later as friend, a friend to the pervisor, Cruz also the girl’s varsity soccer provided assistance students, the faculty, coach. to students in addi“I was one of the the Palo Alto commu- tion to his amiable only two freshmen on character. nity. I think that evthe team, but I still feel “I was driving like he really listened eryone can be a little around by myself when I was talking,” and I got stuck in a more like Ernesto.” senior Katherine Thombush … and Ernessen said. “He always — MATHEW SIGNORELLA-KATZ, to thankfully found senior class president me, and he offered made time for me and was really respectful … to get in my car and I always really apprecipull it out safely,” juated that.” nior Anna Markesky said. As a soccer coach, Cruz was moStudents and teachers alike said they tivated not by the goal of winning feel a void on campus without Cruz’s exunumerous games, but by making berant presence. a genuine difference in the lives “There’s an emptiness not seeing him of the players he coached. and not talking to him,” sociology teacher “That’s my passion, to Benjamin Bolanos said. “It’s a big loss for have a kid who nobody wants us; you can definitely feel it.” and give them hope [to] Signorello-Katz said the best way for start enjoying the game,” the community to honor Cruz’s life is to inCruz said in an interview ternalize his kind and gracious spirit. with Verde Magazine last “More than any job title, Ernesto was a year. friend, a friend to the students, the faculty, Not only did Cruz the Palo Alto community,” Signorello-Katz form strong relation- said. “I think that everyone can be a little ships with his athletes more like Ernesto.” v
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12 APRIL 2022
That’s my passion, to have a kid who nobody wants and give them hope [to] start enjoying the game.” — ERNESTO CRUZ, in an interview with Verde Magazine last year