Worker Killed on the Job Worried About Safety

The night before Alejandro Valladares was killed, he foresaw his own death.

The construction worker spent restless hours worrying that the soil at the site at Sixth and Cypress streets in Hermosa Beach was unstable.

"'The dirt can swallow someone,'" the 29-year-old told his sister.

The next morning, March 10, Valladares fell headfirst into a trench at the site and was buried by a heavy mixture of soil and clay. Co-workers dug furiously. Valladares suffocated before they could reach him.

Two weeks after her brother's death, Lucia Garcia sat in the home they shared in Hawthorne and, speaking through a translator, recalled the night before Valladares  died.

Garcia said Valladares' safety concerns were rooted in his nine years of construction experience. Once, he'd been hit in the eye with a metal rod. Another time, he'd fallen from the second story of a building he was working on. He was hesitant to seek medical care because he lacked health insurance.

When Valladares shared his fears about the Hermosa Beach site, Garcia urged him to get off the project. "Nobody needs to risk their life for a job," she told him.

But she also knew that her brother was not likely to heed her advice.

One of 13 children, Valladares grew up in poverty in Cuernavaca, Mexico. When he arrived in the United States, he was determined to improve his lot. He found work with David Shaw Concrete and Block, and stayed with the company for nine years, until his death.

He sent money from every paycheck to Mexico to help support his family and siblings and enrolled in English classes in the hope of moving to a better-paying position at work.

Every aspect of her brother's life was infused with his generous spirit, Garcia said.

Valladares was a devout Catholic who prayed throughout the day and considered becoming a deacon one day. "For him, the Holy Spirit was everything," Garcia said.

An avid cook, Garcia dreamed of uniting his family in Mexico for a special meal. He enjoyed cooking from scratch, including making his own torillias, gorditas, sopes and quesadillas. He also enjoyed eating.

"He was skinny but he ate a lot," Garcia said of her brother's voracious appetite.

Valladares was a soccer enthusiast, playing every Sunday around the South Bay on a team called "Dos Estrellas."

Garcia said her brother was unusually kind.

"He didn't like to make fun of anybody. Not even just between us," Garcia said. "Making fun of someone was really offensive to him."

Garcia said she was unaware of how many friends her brother had until they came to offer condolences and leave flowers, candles and notes at a makeshift shrine at the site of the accident. 

"He was different than the rest of us," Garcia said. "He respected everyone."