Milanca Alicia Lopez, 22, a 2012 UC Berkeley graduate, died in a car accident Friday morning in Berkeley.
According to Berkeley Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Mary Kusmiss, the fatal crash was reported to Berkeley Police Department at 1:13 a.m. Officers responded to the scene at California Street, just north of Allston Way, where they found the Cadillac she was traveling in had struck a tree.
Lopez was pronounced dead at the scene, while the driver — UC Berkeley graduate student Jose Lumbreras, 24 — and Lopez’s young son, Xavier, were both taken to local hospital trauma units with serious injuries, according to police. Student Parent Programs and Services director Alice Jordan said Xavier remains in critical condition at Children’s Hospital in Oakland as of Tuesday afternoon.
Lopez attended Hawthorne Math and Science Academy in Southern California and moved with her infant son to Berkeley in 2007 to attend UC Berkeley as a freshman, according to Jordan. She participated this month in the campus’ spring commencement ceremony and was planning to finish classes this summer.
Jordan said Lopez will receive her degree posthumously in Social Welfare. She said Lopez was ready to embark on a master’s program for teaching at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies in the fall.
According to Jordan, Lopez was a very active member within the Berkeley student-parent community.
“In her time at Cal, Milanca touched the lives of many students and staff and she was at the heart of a caring student parent community,” Jordan said in an email.
Lopez was a past president of the Student Parent Association for Recruitment and Retention and actively organized her community to protest tuition increases and child care budget cuts. In 2009, Lopez was quoted speaking out against UC system budget cuts to the Golden Gate Xpress, the San Francisco State University student newspaper.
“Milanca was honest and open about both the struggles and the victories that are inevitable as a parenting student at Cal and she was very loved by our community,” wrote Ginelle Perez, a counselor at the campus’s Transfer, Re-entry and Student Parent Center, in a post on the association’s Facebook page.
“She had a heart of gold and always continued to give back,” said Geraldine Gomez, a fellow student and friend of Lopez, in an email. “She worked with Gift of Life volunteering and raising money for sick children in Peru.”
According to Jordan, Lopez also used her confidence in math to tutor her fellow student parents in informal Graduate Record Exam prep sessions and assist their children with their homework.
“She was one of the best, most loving and dedicated mothers I have ever known,” said Gomez. “Her son was her world and her his.”
Lopez had a large and loving family, many of which traveled to Berkeley to celebrate her accomplishments during last week’s commencement ceremony. In a Facebook post, Perez said Lopez’s love for her family was “fierce … especially (for) her son.”
A candlelight vigil was held on May 20 at the site of the accident on behalf of Lopez’s family, where mourners left photos, messages and flowers around the base of the damaged tree. A formal funeral service will be held, though no date has been set as of yet.
Family members have also set up a donation fund to assist the family with any possible financial burdens.
At the core of the emotions shared by all those who loved Lopez is a poignant feeling of regret that she was not able to realize her dream to reach others through her work as an educator.
“She loved working and giving back to a variety of marginalized and underprivileged students,” said Audra Casanova, UC Berkeley alumna and Lopez’s friend, in an email. “It is a sad loss not only for the UC Berkeley student parent community but for the many children that will never be able to benefit from the hugely passionate heart and great mind that Milanca was guided by.”
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So I remember graduating alongside this bozo in the Latino Graduation Ceremony about a month ago. I remember seeing her child dressed exactly alike as in the picture. I thought to myself that I wasn’t the only single parent who had their child walking alongside them on the stage. This story is definitely sad but truly frustrating as well. I became a single parent at the age of 19 without any help from the mother. I am proving that fathers are not the only ones who can raise children and have some “rags to riches” story here. But I WOULD NEVER place my daughter in such a danger as to put them in the car of a drunk driver while me myself being shitfaced as well. Bullshit. I love my daughter to NEVER do such a thing. This “mother” deserves no sympathy for the stupidity that she committed, along with the idiot driver.
Xavier has passed away, but you can still donate to help his father pay the medical bills:
http://www.gofundme.com/om01s
If he had been sufficiently responsible to put a condom on, there would have been no child killed with the acts of an irresponsible mother and no child who was probably supported at least in part by the taxpayers…
The father never paid a penny for the kid before, but now he suddenly plans on paying his medical bills. Right. Even though the kid was almost certainly covered by either Berkeley’s SHIP or Medicaid.
Scam, scam, scam.
The irresponsible prick will probably pocket the dinero…
Did Milanca ever identify Xavier’s father in legal documents? A common example of welfare fraud is for a pregnant unwed mother to write down “father unknown” in the birth certificate to get monthly government checks whether or not she knows the baby’s daddy. However, it seems Milanca has kept in touch with Xavier’s father over the last six years. If she was committing welfare fraud then Xavier’s father should turn over all the donated money to the county welfare office.
RIP Xavier. May this tragedy serve as a reminder that our actions have consequences far beyond our comprehension and affect far more than just oursevles. My condolences go out to the family and the community.
“…was planning to finish classes this summer.Jordan said Lopez will receive her degree posthumously in Social Welfare.”
So she didn’t actually finish her classes, but will receive a degree anyways? Jordan, you may as well giver he son a Social Welfare degree too. He suffered enough and shouldn’t have to overcome racism and colonialism to claim a Cal degree on his resume.
What you are witnessing is the politics of guilt run amuck. Everyone feels guilty about the problems some people face except for those who actually caused them.
I feel no guilt. The gene pool gets upgraded every time this shit happens.
[Jordan said Lopez will receive her degree posthumously in Social Welfare.]
That’s sort of like giving Yasser Arafat the Nobel Peace Prize, isn’t it? Getting in a car with her child that was driven by some clown with a BAC nearly triple the legal limit isn’t what I call setting a good example.
She was a double major and probably completed the degree requirements for Social Welfare and planned on completing the last requirements for her other major in the summer. And by the way, you are no one to judge her.
Isn’t there some equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath of “doing no harm” in the world of social work? Seems she clearly failed those basic tenets when she entrusted her child to an antisocial, impulsive drunk driver.
Eliminate the joke major Social Welfare along with all race, gender, ethnic studies programs. Use those resources for real academic fields of study.
Hmm, she has a kid when she’s 16 years old. Next, she hooks up with some gang-banger with an alcohol problem. Last but not least, she not only gets in the car when he’s shitfaced, but puts her kid in the car as well – and to top it all off, she doesn’t wear a seatbelt. Lousy job of parenting, that’s for sure.
Can everyone who seem to be seeking the ultimate truth in this situation please stfu, get a life, and while you’re at it… look for ways to help the family(if your really care about community matters). Hint: help doesn’t mean sitting at your lonely computer and spewing out nonsense through your finger tips.
> look for ways to help the family
Here’s the best way to help the family:
(1) The cabron who drove drunk into a tree needs to go to prison, where he belongs.
(2) Mama needs to be a posthumous poster child to those who think that their reckless “la vida loca” behavior is appropriate when you’re raising a child.
(3) Xavier is the only true innocent victim here. Try to remember that.
That’s the outrageous part. The poor kid is probably going to die thanks to these two losers, and people are defending them?
Snip, snip
They got in the news with their actions.
The public has the right to discuss.
Only God can help that family now, what’s done is irreversible by human means.
You all really claim to have the child’s best interest at heart. If he were to pull through I’m sure he’d appreciate if he knew that people spoke of his beloved mother in this manner during this crucial time for the family. Right on, way to go. You all have so much to contribute to society through your blog posts here. I really don’t see anyone defending the actions of the adults. I see people asking for a bit of respect for the moment. Time and place, as someone put it. If it means that much to y’all go start up an official website, nonprofit, or community outreach org with these self assessed vital comments/info you have to offer.
Ah, isn’t that what you are doing?
You have all read the article wrong. It clearly states that the driver was Jose, not the mother.
Noone has read it wrong. They are simply questioning why did she get herself and her precious son in the car with a guy completely trashed.
And from the recklessness of his actions, I am willing to bet it’s not the first time he’s done it.
what about the sons fund? why is it not posted here i heard there was also a fund for the son and the father who is at sons side. i am a friend of theirs and i know the father was there for his son and is currently in the hospital with his son making hard decisions. his son didn’t have a choice but listen to his mom and get in the car. poor child. http://www.gofundme.com/om01s
While I make no excuses for the mother, the tone of your post seems to suggest that you’re not holding the father responsible for his own actions.
I don’t think the father was the drunk driver of the car.
The father was not the drunk driver in the situation, so what is he responsible for?
I think it is an amazing idea to donate money in the name of Xavier as he was the innocent person in the situation.
My thoughts go out to the boy and his family…
Excuse me, I was under the impression that the father was driving. So who was this guy, her boyfriend on the side?
The same father who was nearly never around over the past 6 years, until now. Now he’s playing ultimate father duties. Regardless, support and pray for little Xavier and both sides of the family.
The commenters in this thread might be some of the most horrible, heartless people alive. A child just lost his hardworking mother and all you can is chastise her for being the passenger of a drunk driver? Despicable. May Milanca rest in peace. I wish her family nothing but light and love at this heartwrenching time.
A child didn’t just lose his ‘hardworking mother’–he basically lost his life. The kid looks like he’s never going to recover, even if he survives. Her actions resulted in another person–her child!– losing their life.
> The commenters in this thread might be some
> of the most horrible, heartless people alive.
Not nearly as horrible and heartless as putting one’s child in a car with someone who was literally and figuratively dead drunk. You can wet your panties over these comments all you want, but nobody has been killed, maimed or disfigured over anything anyone has posted here.
> A child just lost his hardworking mother and all you
> can is chastise her for being the passenger of a drunk driver?
Uh, yes. She’s dead and her child is injured as a result of her reckless and irresponsible decision. Exactly what part of “cause and effect” do you NOT understand?
Xavier is dead too :(
> “She was one of the best, most loving and dedicated
> mothers I have ever known,” said Gomez. “Her son
> was her world and her his.”
So how does that reconcile with the fact that she got in a car with a man who was nearly 3 times over the blood alcohol limit for DUI?
Even the best most loving mothers make mistakes. My heart goes out to her family….
If she survived, she almost certainly would have been charged with felony child endangerment, a crime that carries up to 6 years in the state pen–10 if the child ends up dying. Felony child endangerment is not a ‘mistake’.
I agree. And if she had lived, she would have dreaded that mistake every day for the rest of her life. Mom of three here. All my children are grown. I have no tolerance for drunk driving of any kind In fact, I don’t drink. I just feel horrible for everyone involved and find nothing productive in bashing someone who made what was obviously a horrible decision.
Maybe so others don’t make the same mistake. You’re romanticizing somebody who was clearly an incompetent mother.
> I just feel horrible for everyone involved
I feel bad only for the truly innocent one here – the child. No sympathy for either adult, whose individual and collective decisions were responsible for this event.
> and find nothing productive
in bashing someone
> who made what was obviously a horrible decision.
You’re kidding me, right?
We would bash her stupidity if she survived. Her death makes no difference. She put her 6-year old child in harm’s way, he may be disabled for life, and yet her supporters ignore that criminal act and instead award her a college degree she didn’t earn and say warm fuzzy things about what a good person she was.
Had Lopez lived, she would have been charged with child endangerment and possibly even prosecuted as an accessory to manslaughter. And had both Lopez and her infant lived, the baby should and probably would have been removed from her by the authorities as clearly she was an irresponsible parent for taking her child in a car driven by an idiotic drunk…
^^ I second that emotion, someone with a heart.
Yes, Milanca made the biggest mistake by doing what she did. But, please….people! She is gone now and so is her son. My most deepest condolences go out to the family. May this tragedy teach our younger generation (since you all seem to be perfect) to not make the same mistake Milanca made.
May mom and son BOTH rest in peace…
Putting your own life in danger (.22 is not a little tipsy–it’s trashed) when you know a six-year old is depending on you (doesn’t look like there was a father in the picture) is bad enough. Putting the six year old’s life in danger is criminal. Indeed, the six year old is in a coma right now.
On the other hand, maybe Gomez just knows really shitty mothers.
The “PhD student” is with gang background and could have easily been violent and made them get in the car. Makes you wonder about the UC system and their admission criteria overall…
Growing up in a gang infested neighborhood does not make you a gang member nor violent person, but more resilient to have been able to get out of it. Socioeconomic status and lifestyle are not determinants of ones intellectual ability. I am not justifying his actions because what he did was wrong, I am just stating the facts.
Berkeleyside reports that she wasn’t wearing a seatbelt.
Wow, she didn’t score many points in the intelligence department. How in the hell did she manage to graduate from Cal in the first place?
Everyone please understand that what is at hand are persons deaths, and that the victims’ families and friends should be considered when posting comments about the deceased mother and child.
Maybe the “victims families and friends” should consider that a child DIED due to the RECKLESS and IRRESPONSIBLE behavior of the child’s parent/guardian. The mother’s piss-poor judgement and negligent behavior (getting in the car with a drunk, not wearing a seat belt) are just as much of an issue as the pendejo who drive their car into a tree. If Mama had the sense not to get in the car with the kid, in all likelihood the only injury would have been to the Darwin Award candidate at the wheel, who wouldn’t be facing manslaughter charges as we speak.
If he survives I don’t think he is eligible for a Darwin.
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION!
You would think that even AA students have to have SOME mental faculties. Is it really getting that bad?
Wow, no seatbelts and gets in a car with a drunk along with her son. Mr. Darwin, looks like we have a winner here…
Pruning the gene pool. Upgrade.
The actions of the adults are definitely worth discussion and reprimand. But this gentleman Stan, Adsahj(probably Mr. Stan), and a few others….. Wow. I am amazed at the level of dip-shittedness by you folks. I am truly convinced you fellows are miserable people who make miserable assumptions from your computers ALL DAY, ALL OVER the internet without all the facts(or even a proper amount) to be able to make some of the comments you do, although a small portion of what you have said is appropriate/relevant to your proposed “cause”. I am also convinced that you all have no time, will, or the proper qualifications to improve your local communities. Especially with the number of comments you all have provided on just this article(Lord knows where else you all are on the web at all hours). Single men, not by choice, I am sure.
> Single men, not by choice, I am sure.
No, by choice. I don’t have kids running around with some baby momma supported by the taxpayers, and I haven’t KILLED anyone by driving drunk. However, it seems that you’re far more offended by harsh words than by reckless behavior. Maybe that’s acceptable in your culture, but not in mine.