Who was Marco Calzada?

Marco was a normal young man, an older brother, a friend of his friends, noble, simple, cheerful, healthy, authentic, helpful and willing. He liked music, playing guitar, dancing, boxing, sharing with his friends, partying, having fun like any other boy his age, but his heart was in the mission. That's what set him apart.

He was born on June 28, 2003. He attended the first years of school at Colegio La Salle. In 2017 he enrolled at Cedes Don Bosco Technical College where he graduated with a technical specialty in Software Development. He stood out for a deep vocation of dedication and service, combining countless apostolates with his studies and work
Every Saturday he participated in the Don Bosco Oratorio apostolate playing his guitar, playing and sharing with children from the Alajuelita community. Also since 2017 he participated in the Schoenstatt Youth, and was an active leader until the end of his life.

He was a responsible guy and combined his multiple apostolates between studies and work. He was in his first year at Lead University in Data Science Engineering, working at L.L.Bean as an Associate QA Engineer.

Motivated by a strong desire to serve those most in need, in 2021 he began to actively participate, along with his parents and sisters, in the Ignis Mundi mission, which involved moving with them to live in a vulnerable neighborhood of San José as a permanent missionary family.

The afternoon before his death he was reading a book that anticipated what would happen hours later. The last page he read was about death and life, about suffering and victoriousness. "Et lux in tenebris lucet"...And light shines in the midst of darkness..."Everything was intertwined.

A short time later he meets up with his friends and goes to a bar to celebrate. His mother writes to him to see how he is, and he answers: "I'm going home soon, wake me up tomorrow to go to the Mission". Those were his last words with his parents.

Minutes later he leaves the bar and begins his pilgrimage to La Victoria. He walks to the bus, as he did so many times before, and shortly before arriving, he was brutally murdered. At all times he maintained an attitude of inexplicable meekness and fortitude.

His life and death has been for many a light on the road, which he continues to walk with us. He was a young Schoenstatter, Salesian, diocesan, missionary of Ignis Mundi... a young missionary marked by Christ and Mary, touched by the Love of God, whose fire endures and shines more than ever.  

Today it continues to illuminate many hearts.