Valentino Marcos Alvero, 68
as a kind person. His nickname, in fact, was “Mr. Nice.” He was single and lived by himself in an apartment in South El Monte, where he was the only Asian tenant surrounded by Latino neighbors, and where he routinely played the saxophone in the evening.
“Even those he couldn’t speak to (in Spanish,) he always greeted them,” the apartment manager said. A neighbor said they called Kao “una buena persona” — “a good person.”
The Andy Kao Memorial Ming Wei Ma was beloved Ballroom Dance Group was as “the heart” of the formed after the tragedy. Star Ballroom On Saturday and today, Arcadia Donuts will donate Dance Studio. the proceeds from The coowner sales to the Monterey Park is remembered Hope and Resiliency Center and the Andy Kao Memorial for his Ballroom Dance Group boundless to assist funding the nonprofit enthusiasm organizations’ continued and magnetic activities. Arcadia ability Donuts is at 34 Las Tunas to draw Drive, Arcadia. people together. Ma often took the lead in planning events for the local Chinese community; he organized a successful gala just a week before the shooting.
“Champion in the house!” he’d greet a Star instructor who won national dance competitions.
“I want to provide an active place for the Asian community of Monterey Park to help prolong their life and improve their health,” Ma told the Pasadena Starnews in 2016. “Having a place where people from all over the world can come together and communicate through dance is how I can help.”
They were all seniors, or just about, and they all were devoted to social dancing for fun and exercise. On Jan. 21, 2023, they were doing what they loved. The ballroom. The embrace. A year later, a community is still fragile. Determined to move on. But a collective memory still remembering their smiles.
Here is a synopsis of biographical stories that published on Jan. 29, 2023, about the 11 people who were murdered as a result of the mass shooting at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park.
Ming Wei Ma, 72 Yu-lun Kao, 72 *
Yu-lun Kao, who went by “Andy,” had just turned his partner during an upbeat number at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio when a gunman walked in.
Shally, a friend who had danced with him for 15 years, said that twosecond move during a jive dance saved her life. But it cost Kao his.
Andy Kao is remembered
“Please remember that Valentino is more than just a headline or a news story,” the family of Valentino Marcos Alvero wrote. “He loved people and hearing about their lives and, in return, he shared his own stories with so much gusto and enthusiasm that you couldn’t help but listen and laugh along with him,” his family said in a statement.
A father of two, grandfather to three and an uncle to many nieces and nephews, Alvero loved “fiercely” and was the “life of any party,” they said.
He also was a devout Catholi, and his loved ones called it a “great travesty” that he didn’t receive his last rites, a sacrament administered before death.
“Our family would like to request all priests and Catholics to pray for him by name, Valentino Marcos Alvero,” they wrote.
Wen-tau Yu, 64 *
Though he was retired, Wen-tau Yu still was pursuing new goals, his son Szu Fa Yu said proudly.
Yu immigrated to the United States from Taiwan and had worked as a manager for an agricultural company, his son said. Yu was attending school to become a pharmacist. He was less than a month into the medical program. “I really admire him for that,” Yu said. “His books and notes are still lying around on the desk. It’s heartbreaking to see.”
My My Nhan, 65
My My Nhan — which some also spelled My or Mymy — was her family’s “biggest cheerleader,” read a statement from loved ones.
Nhan chose the Star Ballroom Dance Studio to celebrate the Lunar New Year, coming three weeks after the death of her mother. She had been her mother’s caretaker and now she was ready to “start the year fresh,” said her niece, Fonda Quan.
Nhan liked group dance classes like the ones offered at Star, her friend Paul Cao said. And she was a quick learner.
“In group, you have to be able to catch it,” he said, “and she danced very well.”
In August, Nhan’s family announced the creation of the My My Nhan Legacy Fund, established through Asian Pacific Community Fund, to help organizations like Seniors Fight Back, which empowers AAPI seniors by providing tools and resources for them to protect