Lorenzo Salgado Araujo
A workday has its own kind of faith.
You leave before the whole day has revealed itself. You carry the tools, the coffee, the directions, the names of the people riding with you. You move toward the day’s work, carrying the quiet belief that your hands will know what to do.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was driving workers to a job site when he was killed. He had come from Mexico, raised a family and built a construction business in Houston. He was on his way to work that morning, in the middle of the life he had worked hard to make.
And then the state entered the morning.
ICE said they were looking for someone else. But violence does not become smaller because it was misplaced. It does not become cleaner because a press release tries to hold it at a distance. Lorenzo’s family is left with the impossible work of asking for answers while also carrying a grief that no answer can undo.
This portrait is not here to make sense of his death.
It is here to hold his name outside of the language that tries to make violence sound orderly. Before the report, before the explanation, there was Lorenzo, in the middle of a morning that belonged to his life.
Let this portrait carry Lorenzo forward with the warmth of the life he lived: as a father and a man deeply loved.
A papel picado portrait from Papel Memoria, a memorial archive by Alessandra Gutierrez
For the clearest detail and strongest finished piece, I recommend using cardstock and a cutting machine. (Check your local LIBRARY for one in their “Maker Spaces”) Cardstock provides the stability needed to hold the fine lines and structure of the design. You can download the black and white image directly from this site or access the full set on the Cricut website under the Papel Memoria Collection. These templates are free to use for personal and community projects, but they may not be sold or used for commercial purposes.
To download the PNG file, click on the black and white image, open a new page and right click to save on to your computer. Alternately, you can visit the collection page on the Cricut website for all the files here.
For anyone without access to a paper cutter, poster size papel picado portraits are also available to order here and can be shipped directly.
Last updated: August 2026