BRYAN, TEXAS — The family of a Bryan man who drowned at Lake Bryan said "he had a dreams, he had a purpose."
The Bryan Police Department was notified Sunday that a person had gone underwater at Lake Bryan while swimming and they had not come back up. Less than an hour later, the body of Santos Berrera-Menchu was located.
Santos' family said he came to the United States from Guatemala to give his wife and daughter, who still live in Guatemala, a better life.
"His plan was to come over here and do something for his family, to buy some property, have a house, and provide the best education to his daughter. To escape the low resources he had in Guatemala," said his older brother, Luis Barrera-Menchu.
News of the drowning devastated this Bryan family. They said their brother had so much more life to live.
"He had dreams, he had a purpose, to return to his family but unfortunately, that's no longer possible," Luis Barrera-Menchu said.
The family is trying to raise money to help send the body home.
"We want to return his body to Guatemala because that's where my father and my mother are. They're very sad, they're stressed out. His wife is suffering, they had to take her to a doctor because it was such a shock to receive the news that he died." Luis Barrera-Menchu said.
As the family grieves, their focus is now to return their loved one back to Guatemala.
"We don't go to the lake often, sometimes when we feel like it, we'd go, just to entertain ourselves. Unfortunately, we never expected something like that to happen," Giovani Marcello Barrera-Menchu, younger brother of Santos Barrera-Menchu said.
On June 16 and 19, there will be a fundraiser event starting at 8 a.m. selling BBQ chicken plates and tacos at 2106 Truman St. in Bryan. The plates will be available to be picked up or purchased on-site.
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