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Many people who lived near Northeast Alberta Street knew Mario Cabrera with his warm smile, big gray beard and perhaps a request for money or cigarettes. He loved the biscuits at Tin Shed Garden Cafe, giving ladies compliments on their hair, and electronics.
Cabrera died July 3 near Northeast 11th Avenue and Roselawn Street, according to neighbor Tracy Hart. According to public records, Cabrera was 76 when he died and had lived his life mostly in Northeast Portland and in Tucson, Ariz. His last permanent address was in Laughlin, Nev., in 2012. The Multnomah County Medical Examiner’s Office did not immediately respond to a request to confirm Cabrera’s identity and death.
According to Hart, cause of death is currently unknown. Cabrera took medication for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, but did not appear to be in seriously ill health recently, Hart said. An outpouring of grief is visible on signs outside of the Alberta Co-Op and pop-up altars at Tin Shed and at Hart’s home.
“He stayed here whenever he decided to stay,” Hart said, who has lived there with his brothers since 1973.
He had known Cabrera for about six years and remembers him as laughing and always keeping a positive attitude despite his poverty and the injured knee that caused him pain. The death, which happened next door to Hart’s home, came as a shock.
“He was still moving around, up and about, still being Mario,” Hart said.
At the memorial on the fence outside of Hart’s home, mourners dropped off cigarettes, Corn Nuts, packets of Splenda, water, coffee, a Modelo Chelada, a Digital Electronics textbook, many bouquets of flowers, and tied slips of paper with memories of Cabrera:
“Dear Mario, Rest in Power. You were the saint of Alberta Street.”
“Dear Mario from Arizona, thank you for your smile and your kind voice and your enormous heart. Thank you for living among the humans as long as you could with your sights set on the heavens. We cherish the memories of you.”
“My heart is broken, my friend.”
Neighbor Shannon McMullen cried as she saw the picture of Cabrera and read the messages. Just last week he had asked her for $10. She didn’t have it.
“He was someone that was in need of resources that weren’t given to him,” McMullen said. “He was someone that—although he was so kind and sweet to everyone in his community—in part, I feel like we failed him. That’s what I’m feeling now.”
