Eddie Escobedo remembered for service to Hispanic community

By Kyle B. Hansen

Saturday, Oct. 23, 2010 | 5 p.m.

Eddie Escobedo was remembered at a memorial service Saturday as a visionary leader who changed the Hispanic community in the Las Vegas Valley for the better.

More than 200 people attended the memorial at Palm Mortuary on North Main Street in Las Vegas.

Edmundo “Eddie” Escobedo died Oct. 15 at the age of 77. He was a businessman and publisher of Spanish-language newspaper El Mundo.

He was also a supporter of Democratic causes. Sen. Harry Reid, who sat in the front of the chapel near the family, and Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto attended the service along with other community leaders.

The memorial was preceded Friday evening with a Catholic Mass in Spanish and a viewing.

Following the Saturday memorial, a procession passed Escobedo’s office on Eastern Avenue before going to the Palm Cemetery on Eastern for his burial.

Saturday’s event was billed as an English memorial, but much of it was also in Spanish, blending the two cultures Escobedo touched.

But the Rev. Hilario Cisneros, who led the memorial, said all that mattered was the “language of love.”

When Escobedo came to Las Vegas, he saw a valley full of immigrants with possibilities, and he passed his hope on to others, Cisneros said.

“How blessed are you Ed, because you planted seeds of hope,” he said.

Escobedo worked to change the Las Vegas Valley, Cisneros said, then passed that work on to his decedents.

“Eddie today passed the Olympic torch to each member of his family,” Cisneros said.

“We are runners and we are not yet to the finish line,” he added. “We have to take care of this flame shining against the darkness all around us.”