He came back in a box.
A wooden coffin wrapped in cardboard, the kind used to protect freight. Eighteen years after leaving, that was how Silverio Villegas González returned to Michoacán. The plane landed in Guadalajara; from there, the hearse drove 10 hours through the hills until it reached Loma de Chupio, a rural community just outside the town center around 4 p.m. Sept. 26.
According to Michoacán-based reporter César Cabrera, who attended the funeral, the family held the wake inside the small wooden home where Villegas grew up — four rooms, a tin roof. About 20 people came the first night: brothers, nephews, neighbors. Behind Villegas González’s casket, large circular flower arrangements leaned against the wall — one filled with red and white roses, another with yellow lilies, white blooms and green foliage. A gold-colored crucifix stood to the left of the coffin, reflecting the candlelight. The next day, the church in Irimbo was full.
Federal immigration agents fatally shot Villegas González during a traffic stop in Franklin Park on the morning of Sept. 12. The Department of Homeland Security later claimed one agent was “seriously injured” after being dragged by Villegaz González’s car as he tried to flee. Body-camera footage obtained by the Weekly shows one agent telling a Franklin Park police officer his injury was “nothing major,” however. Neither federal agent was wearing a body-camera at the time of the shooting.
The Mexican Consulate in Chicago paid for the flight. The state covered the transport from Guadalajara. The municipality paid for the burial…