CSULB Paris Terrorism Victim Laid to Rest

While much of the Southland’s attention was focused on a continuing terrorism investigation following a mass shooting San Bernardino, friends and relatives said farewell Friday to a Cal State Long Beach student who was gunned down during the terrorist attack in Paris.

Nohemi Gonzalez, 23, of El Monte, died Nov. 13 while eating with friends at a popular bistro in Paris called La Belle Equipe. A senior majoring in industrial design, she was one of 17 CSULB students attending Strate College of Design in Paris as part of a semester abroad program.

She died in the coordinated attacks that erupted at the cafe, a soccer stadium and, most notably, at the Bataclan theater where a Palm Desert-based band was performing. The attacks left 130 people dead.

During a funeral service at Calvary Chapel in Downey, Gonzalez was remembered as an energetic friend with a zest for life and never-ending willingness to reach out to others.

“She’s a good example for our generation,” one of her cousins said. “She sets a great example for people coming from immigrant parents trying to reach that American dream, you know, going to school, getting exposed to different worlds, traveling, exposing herself to new ideas, new people.”

Another cousin, Miriam Padilla, said the fact that Gonzalez died in an act of terrorism should prompt people of all ethnicities to join together in solidarity.

“She was like a sister to us,” she said. “It is up to us as workers, students, immigrants and feminists of every color, religion, nationality to come together and unite to end all the violence against us everywhere, by ending the wars and oppression and exploitation that are its root causes. This is the only response that will do anything to stop real terrorism.

“The Paris tragedy is fueling the fear of domestic terrorism, and in our quest for a better world we must stand in solidarity,” Padilla said. “We are angry, furious that our cousin is dead. But this attack has only deepened the resolve to advocate for all immigrants fleeing violence and economic disparity in the Middle East and Latin America and all over the world.”

A series of gatherings have been held in Gonzalez’s memory in the weeks since the Paris attacks. Three days after Gonzalez’s death, about 500 people gathered at CSULB for a remembrance ceremony.

University president Jane Close Conoley told the somber crowd that the university is a tight-knit community that shares the Gonzalez family’s grief, saying her death at the hands of terrorists tied to the Islamic extremist group ISIS is “an assault on our hearts.”

“We miss her today and we’ll miss her forever,” Conoley said.

The chairman of CSULB’s industrial design program told the Gonzalez family that Nohemi was a luminary among her peers.

“We are all heartbroken that such a beautiful light has been ripped from us,” Martin Herman said. “(Her) goodness and compassion infused the department.”

City News Service