Immigrant’s Wake

While hundreds of people viewed the body of a popular police officer, another wake took place in Wooster Square for a Mexican immigrant known by far fewer New Haveners.

A dozen or so friends and relatives visited his open casket at Chapel Street’s Lupoli Brothers Funeral Home Tuesday afternoon, as a crowd many times larger in East Haven said good-bye to popular New Haven police officer Dan Picagli.

The immigrant’s name was Manuel Santiago. He was 36 years old. He joined his brother Basilio Santiago in New Haven five years ago to make more money to send home to his mother in Tlaxcala, Mexico. Manuel lived in Fair Haven near the Chabaso bread bakery on James Street, where he had a maintenance job. He liked soccer and basketball. He kept out of trouble. He worked hard.

And he was here illegally.

A robber stabbed Manuel Santiago to death last week. Santiago was on Ferry Street cashing his paycheck; the robber was waiting. Manuel put up a fight; the robber responded by killing him. It was one more crime in New Haven committed by people who know that immigrants fear contacting the police. Manuel Santiago paid what the president of New Haven’s police union, who’s fighting efforts to encourage immigrants to trust the police and report crimes, calls ​“the cost of coming in here illegal.”

Manuel’s brother Basilio (pictured) was at the wake. Manuel liked to play and watch sports since their days growing up together in Puebla, Mexico, said Basilio, 37, who works in food prep at Atticus Bookstore Caf√© on Chapel Street (which is affiliated with Chabaso). They’d play football, soccer, basketball. Here in New Haven, Manuel kept following his favorite soccer team from back home, the Puebla, as well as Brazil’s national team.

“He was a nice person, outgoing, very mellow. He never got into trouble,” said Angel Cintron, a friend of Manuel who supervises drivers at the bakery. (Cintron translated Basilio’s remarks.) People from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds and nationalities work at Chabaso. ​“Everybody gets along,” Cintron said.

Friends from the bakery and from St. Rose’s Church on Blatchley Avenue collected the money needed for Manuel’s casket, Basilio said. He was gratified for the support. He said he likes being in America but sometimes feels out of place as an immigrant, viewed with suspicion. ​“Sometimes as immigrants, we feel left out… embarrassed. You don’t get the respect. You don’t have as many rights. I just want to be treated like anyone else.”

Gene Lupoli, pictured sitting at his desk in the funeral home’s back office, said he has handled wakes for some 15 – 18 Mexican workers over the past five years. Most were young. Most were victims of crimes. Most died in the past two years. And yes, most were here illegally.

Lupoli disagreed with the police union president on the question of what the ​“cost” should be for the immigrants to be here. Lupoli agrees with the police chief, the mayor and advocates crafting a new policy under which cops wouldn’t inquire into the immigration status of victims reporting crimes.

“Their lives are being taken because they’re easy prey,” Lupoli said. ​“These thieves know they won’t go to the police. While [undocumented workers] may be guilty of a federal crime — and it’s a nonviolent crime — or could be guilty of a crime, they’re not reporting a federal crime. They’re giving testimony of a robbery or an assault type issue.”

“Italians, Jews,” Lupoli reflected, ticking off more ethnic groups established in New Haven, ​“they have jumped ship [in the past to enter the country]. Somehow they’re all legal over time.”

Police have arrested a suspect in Manuel Santiago’s murder. Basilio Santiago said his brother didn’t know his attacker.

Officer Dan Picagli was buried on Wednesday. Manuel Santiago wasn’t. His body will be flown home to Mexico next week.