DES MOINES, Iowa — Radio DJs at local Latino radio stations in Des Moines are remembering Lisa Lopez-Galvan, the mother and host of radio show "Taste of Tejano" killed after the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade Wednesday.
Speaking exclusively to Local 5's Chenue Her, these DJs said she Lopez-Galvan impacted in Latino communities throughout the midwest and through her passions.
One of those Iowa DJs is Darwin Salas of La Q Buena, who is still having a hard time grasping that it was Lopez-Galvan who was killed in Kansas City.
"It wasn't like someone calling me and saying 'Oh, it's Lisa'. I really found out through the news," Salas said. "I was like … I mean, what are the odds that in an event so huge, a celebration… she was a big fan of the Chiefs. You would see it on her social media. And then finding out that it was a Latino person also involved in the radio, it was very shocking."
Salas is also the president of Iowa's largest Latino radio station, La Q Buena.
Through radio work and events over the years, he's maintained a professional relationship with Lopez-Galvan.
"I know she was very important in the Latino community, very engaged with small businesses, always helping out," he told Local 5. "Always organizing fundraisers to help the community so definitely a great loss for Kansas City."
Salas said it's a great loss for her family as well who, like Lopez-Galvan, had a gift and love for music.
"Both her mom and dad were very involved musicians. She would sing and then she was more of a DJ. She would always be the one playing good tunes. Her dad is a very well-known mariachi player that played at all kinds of weddings and quinceañeras, so there were situations where we had events where her dad was playing so she was there," Salas recalled.
In the radio space they occupied, Salas said it's a small group serving a big community. So, local DJs like Salas and Fabiola Schirrmeister are saddened at the void this leaves for the Latino community in Kansas city.
"That's why radio and people like her are so important, because they share that part of their culture and it just enriches our experience, our life experiences here in the United States," said Schirrmeister, a DJ at La Reina 96.5FM & 1260AM/La Ley 105.5 FM.
When people see Lopez-Galvan's face, Schirrmeister who is a mother, hopes they see also the mother and human being Lopez-Galvan was.
"She was doing something that I love to do here in Iowa," she said. "And then I don't want her people to remember her as just a number."
"It's a small community and she was definitely an icon," Salas added.
Salas and his team paid tribute to Lopez-Galvan in their podcast on Thursday.
He's also the president and owner of the Iowa Demon Hawks soccer team. He said they're hosting upcoming soccer clinics for youth in our area and part of that mission is to help steer kids and teens away from violence.