January 21, 1981
By SCOTT MERVILLE El
Paso insurance agent Louis Dominguez first learned that Iran’s taking
of American hostages had touched his family while he was watching the
evening news 14 months ago. “I was watching television and saw Mary Helen (a cousin) in her home. I just couldn’t believe it,” Dominguez said. He
grew up in Globe, Ariz., with his cousin, Mary Helen Lopez, the mother
of Marine Sgt. Jimmy Lopez – one of 52 American hostages flown out of
Iran Tuesday. Tuesday, elation replaced the worry Dominguez has felt for the family back in Arizona. He tried to contact his cousin Tuesday morning. “You just couldn’t get through to them everybody was so busy,” Dominguez said. But he understood. “I think all they want to do is see their son.” He said. A
call to his mother-in-law who lives near the Lopez’s revealed Mary and
Jesse Lopez were flying to Washington, and possibly on to Germany. Several commercial airlines had offered them free flights overseas, Dominguez said. He has been in periodic contact with his family in Globe since that first newscast in late 1979. “You
can’t even imagine what the family has gone through,” Dominguez said as
he sat behind his desk, toying with a small yellow ribbon. Handing the ribbons out has been an Optimist Club project and a reminder of his cousin’s family. Dominguez told the Lopez family in one letter about the star on Mount Franklin, “I know they really appreciated that,” he said. Christmas
was especially though, because Lopez was one of only eight hostages who
did not appear on films released by the Iranians during the holiday
season, he said. That was hard on the family until they were able to identify Jimmy Lopez in a photograph released later, Dominguez said. The
ordeal has aged his cousin, he said. He last saw her in Globe 10 months
ago and has seen her since on several television interviews. “It’s
no different from having your child kidnapped,” he said. “You know
where he’s at and can’t do anything about it. I would think as a
parent, you die a thousand times. “They’d get their hopes up and
then read in the paper they (Iranians) had threaten to put them on
trial. That’s very hard,” Dominguez said. Globe, a little mining town of 8,000, has rallied around the family, he said. Neighbors would bring meals over when Mrs. Lopez grew too depressed to cook, he said. Dominguez said he left Globe 13 years ago, when Jimmy was “just a little guy.” “Jimmy’s
an outstanding young man,” he said. Lopez had twice turned down offers
to attend officer training school in the Marines, preferring to move up
through the ranks, Dominguez said. The Lopez family was one of
the hostage families most accessible to news media, and Dominguez was
always proud of the way family embers conducted themselves on the news. Still,
he hopes the reporters and photographers give the family a break.
“They’re going to be glad to get back to just a normal life,” he said. He plans to go visit the family sometime, “but not until everything’s settled own.” A parade is being planned for Jimmy Lopez’s return he said. Tuesday afternoon, the yellow ribbon still was tied around Dominguez’s mailbox. It will come off when the airplanes land, he said.
Times staff writer
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