Young Hispanic immigrant drowned in New York; family moved to recover their skateboard and cell phone

Photo: Mariela Lombard/The NY Journal

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Joel Ismael León Espinoza, a 21-year-old Ecuadorian immigrant who worked in construction, drowned on a beach in Queens (NYC) and his family received his belongings thanks to a witness to the tragedy.

The ambitious young man scribbled his dreams on sticky notes posted in his bedroom in Queens: learn to drive, speak better English, become a graphic designer, travel to Japan; he listed Daily News when interviewing his heartbroken mother, Elsa Espinoza, who emigrated to the US with her son just two years ago.

“They emigrated here trying to have a better life, just like my family, and everything is so tragic”

Linda Escobar, witness to the beach tragedy

“He never stopped,” the 45-year-old said of her son, Died June 17 in Rockaway Beach. “I wanted to learn Japanese and visit Japan. He was working, getting his papers out, studying.”

The young immigrant was pronounced dead at St. John’s Hospital after rescuers pulled him out of the water. Witness Linda Escobar recalled the grim scene in the waters off Beach 98th St., where she later found the young victim’s backpack floating in the tide, with his cell phone inside, ringing and again. The caller was the mother of the victim, desperately trying to communicate with his lost son.

“It’s so sad to hear his voice,” Escobar recalled. “It’s really sad… I had this kid on my mind since it happened and I just cry. Probably they emigrated here trying to have a better life, just like my family, and everything is so tragic”.

That hot Friday with more than 90 degrees F (32C), León went to the beach with his skateboard after a long day at work and said goodbye to his mother as he left. It was one of two deaths on Rockaway Beach that day, both around 6 p.m. Diaka Kourouma, 16, also drowned in a deadly current while swimming with friends. Her worried father, who was visiting her relatives in Guinea, had warned her to be careful on her first trip to the beach that day.

Escobar informed Mrs. Espinoza that she had found her son’s skateboard on the beach. The victim’s brother came to pick her up a day after the death. “When I told her I had the skateboard, she cried,” Escobar said of her mother. “Her little brother of hers was asking for her. They are small things, but they mean something.”

Rockaway Beach has become a confusing grid of areas that are off limits for swimming due to a $336 million beach rehabilitation project conducted by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The area where Leon drowned is supposed to be for sand recreation only until at least mid-July.

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