Memorial service held for migrant who died in shelter

The first migrant to die in a city-operated shelter — Luis Alberto Aguilar Peres — was remembered at a memorial service Saturday as kind, hard-working and committed to helping family and friends.

“My brother was very humble. He was a hard worker and loved to give generously,” Yeniree Karelys Rodriguez, Peres’ sister, said at the service. “Everything he would gain through his work — he sent it to help his family and his friends in Venezuela. He came not only to complete his dreams of being here in the United States, but also to complete the dreams of others that are still in Venezuela.”

Peres, 26, was found unresponsive June 2 at Woodlawn migrant shelter in the former Wadsworth Elementary School Building. Rodriguez, who sat in the front row during the service at Woodlawn’s Concord Baptist Church, said Peres had been in Chicago for almost a year.

She said she had invited her brother, a husband and father, to move to Utah and live with her. “But he already loved the…