Before the spring of 2022, Fort Worth-born artist Juan Velazquez had never stepped foot in Uvalde.
"I didn't even know it was there or even heard anything about it," Velazquez said. "I remember looking around and thinking like, man, I'm not even sure I'm ever going to come back here."
But after the shooting at Robb Elementary that killed 19 students and two teachers, he and a group of North Texas artists traveled to Uvalde to paint a mural in honor of 10-year-old Alithia Ramirez, one of the student victims, who loved art and drawing. It was part of a project bringing together artists from all over the country to collaborate.
He didn't expect the mural would be the reason he met his wife, April.
"It was the art," she said "I saw a few of his paintings, and then I didn't know he was the artist yet, and so I went on his page, and I saw that he did the mural of Alithia and I followed him."
The two followed each other on TikTok for a year before a chance meeting – right across the street from the mural. The meeting almost didn't happen. When Juan was in Uvalde painting the mural, April had traveled up north for a seasonal job.
"One year later, I decided I'm not going to migrate anymore," she said. "I'm going to settle me and the kids in Uvalde. No more back and forth -- and then, you know, we met."
April spent most of her life in Uvalde, her hometown, where her extended family lives. She described it as a beautiful place.
"The rivers, you know, Concan, all the surrounding areas that make Uvalde feel like home," she said. "Everybody knows that everybody can go to a gas station, and you can go to a grocery store anywhere, you'll see at least four people that you know."
After they met in person, Juan and April went on a formal date and were inseparable after that, driving and flying back and forth between Fort Worth and Uvalde.
"I actually added up all the miles that I've driven," Juan said. "It's a lot, like, it's the equivalence of driving from one side of the United States and back like six times."
Both said they can't really explain what it was exactly that attracted them to one another. "I think sometimes people make connections with people," Juan said. "If you think about it, it doesn't really make sense. I live in a huge city, there's plenty of people on the DFW.
"I remember telling her like, 'hey, we're going to get married.' And she laughed about it then, you know, but we did end up getting married."
April said the connection was instant. "It was never a bland conversation. It was never just, you know,'what are you doing?' or 'what's your favorite color?'" she said.
Juan and April have been married for about a year and now have a toddler daughter. They're raising their blended family in San Antonio.
"We're opposites but complementary opposites," Juan said. "I have kids, she has kids and then we have kids together. So, you know, we have six kids in total. It's a lot of kids."
April said her connection to Juan is helping her heal from the tragedy. She has cousins whose children were killed in the shooting. She said Uvalde is still very much hurting four years later.
"It's still...a very heavy feeling around this time," she said. "I see it all the time with my cousins that are posting that they miss their children, and it's a very hard thing that I couldn't imagine going through.
"Hopefully there's change with the laws and stuff. I know some of the moms are still fighting really hard for laws to change," April said.
Juan and April want their story to be one of hope. "Finding something good out of everything, which is, you know, where I'm at right now," Juan said, "because now we're married and, we have a daughter."
And Juan — once a stranger to rural south Texas — said Uvalde is now his community, too.
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