Resident honored on World Down Syndrome Day
CALEXICO — Ask 55-year-old Gerardo “Eddie” Paez how he spent Tuesday, and he will bust a little dance move, mimic some boxing punches and use hand gestures to describe the key to the city he received during the community’s daylong commemoration of World Down Syndrome Day 2017.
Paez, lovingly known as Eddie, also shared how he took part in a soccer tournament, tree-planting ceremony as well as a tour of the Calexico police station.
“I got to ride in a police car,” he said in Spanish. “I’m supposed to get a badge, too.”
Aside from police officials, Tuesday’s communitywide commemoration also included the participation of the Calexico High band and cheerleaders, Baja Boxing Gym and Calexico Parents Athletic League.
At the center of it all was Paez, who was born with Down Syndrome. Tuesday started off with Paez being sworn in as honorary mayor for the day. Following that, Paez’s itinerary included a tour of the police station, a visit with ARC employees at the downtown port of entry, as well as subsequent stops at the barber shop that acts as his second home, Calexico High and Kennedy Gardens, where the community gathered for a luncheon.
A tree-planting and balloon-releasing ceremony at John F. Kennedy Park, boxing exhibition and soccer tournament rounded out the day’s activities, which Paez admits left him pretty tired in the end.
“I was walking around a lot,” said Paez, who is just as well known for riding his lowrider bicycle all around town.
On Wednesday, the Mexicali native was back at his usual hangout, Emmanuel Barber Shop, where he has been a fixture for the past 18 years and where customers often go out of their way to greet him.
The idea to collectively honor Paez on World Down Syndrome Day was the result of weeks of planning by the Calexico Down Syndrome Committee 3-21.
World Down Syndrome Day is collectively commemorated on March 21 (3-21), which makes reference to a person with Down Syndrome having a third copy of chromosome 21.
When committee members reached out to various individuals and entities asking for support and participation, the response was overwhelming, said Javier Gonzalez, committee member and Kennedy Gardens Neighborhood Watch captain.
“They were more than glad to help,” Gonzalez said.
During his stint as honorary mayor, Paez handed out three John F. Kennedy Awards, created by the Kennedy Gardens Neighborhood Watch program to honor individuals in the community who have demonstrated the kind of selfless public service that the late president had called for.
The Neighborhood Watch program had also presented Paez, who volunteered with the program for 10 years in the past, with one of the keys to the city that had previously been presented to program organizers by city officials.
That key now is displayed in Paez’s bedroom next to the certificate of recognition that the City Council had presented him at its March 15 meeting, Paez said.
The idea to honor Paez was an easy decision for city officials, many of whom are well aware of Paez’s daily bicycle excursions, as well as his tendency to show up and be instantly welcomed at community and youth sporting events, even funerals, said Mayor Armando Real.
“He is not only a community member, but he’s like family,” Real said. “He kind of just goes all over town.”
During his initial stint working for the Calexico Police Department between 1981 and 2000, Chief Reggie Gomez had gotten the opportunity to meet and become friends with Paez, before Gomez left to head the Calipatria Police Department.
Shortly after returning to Calexico as interim police chief in November 2015, and before he was issued his new uniform, Gomez said he was walking around in suit and tie when he heard a familiar voice call his name.
“I was so happy,” Gomez said. “It really made my day that Eddie remembered me.”
Paez has become such a fixture around town, Gomez said, that his absence is quickly noted and often becomes a cause for concern. Paez is one of 10 siblings, the second of five sons to be born after the successive births of his five older sisters, said his mother Gloria Limon Lozano.
After leaving Mexicali to relocate in the Valley when Paez was a youngster, the family then moved to Bakersfield before returning to Calexico about 26 years ago.
Paez learned to ride a bicycle as a youngster, and has used them ever since as his preferred mode of transportation, Limon said.
The kindness and generosity that Paez has received through the years is nothing less than overwhelming.
“Yesterday, the whole city showed us just how much they like my Eddie,” Limon said in Spanish.