On Tuesday, April 17, South sophomore Trinidad Flores passed away due to complications from an ongoing medical condition. Flores, also known as Trinidad Mihkosew Muskwa Inepoweek or Red Bear Standing, was a beloved member of the All Nations, South, and the Minneapolis Ojibwe communities.

He was devoted to his girlfriend, sophomore Danielle Pineiro, and was very close with his family and many friends. Outside of being extremely engaged in his classes at school, Flores was passionate about art, especially anime, drawing, singing, and writing.

In the autobiography Flores created for his English class, he wrote, “I was recently told by an older person that I know how to surround myself by adults that have power. She told me I have good connections in a way.”

He continued, “I know a lot of people. But not only that, I am very creative. I like to do things. I like to be a leader.” It was this combination of charismatic leadership and creativity that made Flores such an invaluable person.

Laura Yost, one of Flores’ teachers, explained that he was a “really positive person who made everyone feel special. He just had this amazing, conversational connection to people.” Yost continued to say that so many of Flores’ teachers, friends and family came to the hospital to support him during his final hours because of the way he reached out to everyone in his life. “He’s just a very genuine guy… His demeanor was really a beautiful one,” she said.

Joe Henry was another one of Flores’s teachers. “Trinidad went about his day with a positive disposition,” he said. “He put smiles on people’s faces. He really made people’s lives a little sunnier.”

Freshman Karissa Ficken said that what she loved most about Flores was “his personality. He was so outgoing, caring, loving and funny.” She went on to say that she also loved his jokes. “Whenever you were down, he’d be there for you, trying to cheer you up,” she said.

Sophomore Jahkobi Martin-Senna considers himself one of the people Flores was closest to. “We could joke around and we would never get mad at each other,” he explained. Martin-Senna said that Flores was “really smart, and not a lot of people know that he was smarter than most of us.”

A four-day fire burned at the American Indian Center for Flores, but that isn’t the end of the commemoration of Flores’s life. The positive impact Flores made on everyone in his life will undoubtedly continue to resonate, and he will be remembered. As Ficken said, “We love him and we miss him, but this isn’t the end. We’ll see him again.”