Teacher and Mexican national Elsa Mendoza Marquez was one of the 22 victims of the mass shooting which took place in El Paso, Texas, last Saturday.

Once again a school community is mourning the loss of an outstanding educator, this time in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Mexican national and elementary school teacher Elsa Mendoza Marquez was one of the 22 victims of the mass shooting which took place in El Paso, Texas, last Saturday.

“The Mexican education community is in mourning for the irreparable loss of Maestra Elsa Mendoza Marquez in the deplorable events in El Paso, Texas,” expressed Mexico’s education minister, Esteban Moctezuma Barragan. Maestra is the title of honor that Mexicans use for teachers.

Elsa crossed the border on Saturday to visit family and do some shopping at Walmart. El Paso is about five miles from the main border checkpoint with Ciudad Juarez. Many Mexican citizens cross the border legally each day to work and shop in the city of 680,000 full-time residents, and the population of El Paso County is more than 80% Latino, according to the latest census data. Elsa was one of eight Mexican nationals who perished in the attack last Saturday.

Elsa was 57 years old, married, and had two grown children. To read more about her and the other victims of this, shooting, read this story published in the LA Times.