Some came to dance, others to celebrate and blow off steam. But early Sunday morning in Orlando, gunshots echoed through Pulse nightclub. A total of 49 people were shot dead in the biggest mass shooting in U.S. history.
For Mario Candedo, of Kansas City, the images from that early morning are unforgettable.
“Just to have lost people, it’s just painful and sad. When you hear about your community, the Latinos, oh my God,” he said.
Most of the victims were Latinos - some gay, some straight.
“To be gay is so difficult. To tell people in our community, in the Latino and Hispanic community, it’s so difficult to tell our parents and our friends that we are gay,” said Candedo.
Seven years ago, Candedo founded the Latino Gay Pride Parade in Kansas City as a way to reach out to a community, he said, often feels alone. Among Latinos, coming out as gay isn’t as accepted because of religion and a culture of machismo, which still exists.
"The machismo doesn’t want to see you cry, complain, show your feelings. You are a man and nothing else,” he explained. “Now, we are in different times and different generations.”
Candedo said he hopes the tragedy and heartbreak in Orlando will encourage parents to be more accepting and encourage the youth to be more comfortable.
"It’s nothing to wrong to be gay. Just enjoy your life, be happy and support others because we don’t want to see something else like what happened in Orlando,” he said.
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Ariel Rothfield can be reached at Ariel.Rothfield@KSHB.com.
