Calls for more medical resources follow 5-year-old Pilsen shelter resident’s death

Visitors to a vigil on Wednesday left flowers and candles for Jean Carlos Martinez Rivero, a 5-year-old boy who fell sick at a Pilsen migrant shelter and died Sunday. The shelter houses more than 2,300 people, more than half minors, and residents say conditions are unsanitary. (Emmanuel Camarillo/Sun-Times)

Mariangel Galeno’s 4-year-old daughter Isabella and her “amiguito” — Spanish for little friend — used to run around the halls of a migrant shelter in Pilsen together. 

Wednesday evening, Isabella held an electric candle in her small hands to honor the memory of that friend, 5-year-old Jean Carlos Martinez Rivero, who died Sunday after becoming ill at the crowded shelter near Cermak Road and Halsted Street.