Green was Maite Yuleana Rodriguez’s favorite color. She was always sporting her pair of lime green Converse tennis shoes. She had hand-drawn a heart on the right shoe.
The 10-year-old was among 21 persons whose lives were cut short in a mass shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on May 24, 2022.
Her mother, Ana Rodriguez, said Maite would always get chicken strips with a side of sliced jalapeños when they went to Whataburger.
She described her daughter as sweet, caring and goal-driven. Maite had told her mother she wanted to study at Texas A&M University and become a marine biologist.
She taught herself how to sew from YouTube videos. She had just picked up a camera and was practicing photography. And when it came to P.E. class, she wanted to win.
“As I lay here on this empty bed and with tears running down my face at 3am I would like to say to my baby girl ‘it’s not goodbye it’s I’ll see you later my sweet girl,’” Rodriguez wrote in a tribute on Facebook.
On her official obituary, Maite was described as a sweet girl and those who know and loved her were blessed with her kind, ambitious, friendly and sweet soul.
“She was an AB honor student who enjoyed learning about animals and the ocean; especially dolphins, whales, and dogs,” her family wrote in the obituary.
They said she wanted to become a marine Biologist “because of her caring heart towards wildlife and the animals within it”.
* All images of Maite Rodriguez reproduced from tribute video on rekfunerals.com
* Tribute adapted Maite’s official obituary on rekfunerals.com
