After her grandfather’s death, Shantelle Cuevas remembers him for his generous heart.

Cuevas, a junior biology and forensics major, got her tattoo during her freshman year of college, after her grandfatherÆs death in May 2010.

Shortly after turning 18, Cuevas got a tattoo of the human heart on her back. She left a piece of it missing and put her grandfather’s name in it.

“I love it that it’s my heart with a piece of him inside,” Cuevas said.

She described her grandfather, Jesus Saro Garcia, as the person who took care of everything. Cuevas said her grandfather helped many homeless people in the Dominican Republic. During floods he would welcome them into his home, which was situated high up on a hill.

Garcia also helped hide the famous Mirabal sisters, also known as the butterflies who were devoted to overthrowing the Trujillo dictatorship.

But growing up, Cuevas rarely saw her grandfather because she lives in Pennsylvania.

“We used to visit, but I have 17 first cousins, so it’s not like I got my own attention. But I felt like he got me without even getting to know me,” Cuevas said. “We would secretly make funny faces to each other and nobody would notice.”

When her grandfather was diagnosed with lung cancer, her grandparents moved to New York City where he received treatment for a year and a half.

“That first year after his death was pretty tragic,” Cuevas said. “All of my aunts never wore any color as a sign of respect. My grandmother just recently started wearing color.”

Soon after Cuevas got her first tattoo, she found a note written by her grandfather that said, “If you believe in me, there is no death.” She decided to get the Spanish words tattooed in DNA strands also on her back.

“He didn’t blink an eye,” Cuevas said, referring to her grandfather facing death. “He took it like a man. He just told us all not to worry.”

Published on December 2, 2014 at 12:01 am

Contact Gigi: gantonel@syr.edu