Mourning at Sonoma State

<p>More than 150 Sonoma State University students and staff on Wednesday night held candles and remembered Maribel Raya, a 19-year-old sophomore who died early Saturday in an auto accident that injured three other people.</p><p>The students gathered outside Salazar Hall in front of a table with lighted candles and multiple photos of a young woman described as a caring friend.</p><p>“She was just a great person, always smiling, always laughing about something,” said Niña O’Brien, who helped organize the 9 p.m. memorial.</p><p>Claudia Holt, Raya’s instructor last year in an introductory course on university life for first-generation college students, spoke of a memoir the young woman wrote for the class.</p><p>Holt said, “Her very last line was, ‘I’m the one who sees the lonely person sitting by themselves. I’m the one who goes up and says something to them.’”</p><p>Raya, whose hometown was Olivehurst near Marysville, died about 1:40 a.m. Saturday when the car she was riding in left Highway 101 and struck a guardrail and tree near Todd Road. The crash also injured fellow SSU sophomore Alejandra Meza, 19, of Rohnert Park; Alex Cano, 19, of Santa Rosa, and Arnaldo Salazar, 20, a highly regarded soccer player attending Santa Rosa Junior College.</p><p>Cano and Meza, the car’s driver, since have been released from Memorial Hospital, but a spokeswoman Wednesday was unable to release any information on the condition of Salazar, who reportedly received a broken neck and two broken arms.</p><p>Sonoma State President Ruben Armiñana sent an e-mail message Tuesday alerting students, faculty and staff to Raya’s death and to Wednesday’s candlelight gathering.</p><p>“Maribel was a well-known and loved residential and EOP (Educational Opportunity Program) student,” Armiñana wrote. “She was known to many on campus as she was a student assistant in the Disability Services for Students office.”</p><p>Earlier Wednesday, O’Brien recalled how the two met a year ago when they took part in Summer Bridge, a weeklong orientation for incoming freshman. The university’s Educational Opportunity Program offers the special orientation for first-generation college students.</p><p>“We gather tonight not only to mourn the loss of our beautiful friend Maribel, but to celebrate her life lived,” O’Brien told the gathering. She noted Raya’s Facebook page contained this phrase: “Loving life and that is all that matters.”</p><p>Speakers, many fighting back tears, said Raya’s death reminded them to hold life as precious and to reach out and care for others.</p><p>Raya is survived by her parents, Martin and Maria Raya, and sisters Mireya and Marina, all of Olivehurst; and a grandmother, Maria Medina of Castroville.</p><p>A funeral Mass will be celebrated for Raya on Friday at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Marysville.</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.com</p>