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PROVO — Alberto Marcano had come from Venezuela to the United States, like many immigrants, seeking opportunity.
"He wanted a better life," said his brother Jhonny Marcano.
Tragically, he was killed last week while changing a flat tire along I-15 in the American Fork area, and now his family members are left mourning, remembering the good times. Alberto Marcano, 43, was working, saving money and hoping to complete the paperwork necessary to bring his wife and three of his four kids from Venezuela to Utah.
"He was a great guy ... always helping people, always optimistic," said Jhonny Marcano, who came to the United States from Venezuela in 2002 and lives in Pleasant View. The crash, which occurred before sunrise at around 6:30 a.m., remains under investigation, but Marcano thinks it could have been avoided.
Alberto Marcano had been a petroleum engineer for Petróleos de Venezuela, known as PDVSA, the state-owned oil giant in oil-rich Venezuela. But it was tough making ends meet in the unstable country, characterized by the U.S. State Department for its "extensive corruption, economic mismanagement and violation of international norms" under President Nicolás Maduro. Thus, sponsored by his brother, a naturalized U.S. citizen, Mercano came to Utah on April 19, 2023, under the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service's humanitarian parole initiative geared to those from Venezuela, Cuba and certain other countries.
He was living in Provo and had a production job at Lakanto, an Orem-based firm that makes artificial sweeteners. He also worked as a DoorDash driver. While a college graduate, he didn't speak English, limiting his work options in the United States, though he was taking classes to get better in the language and to move ahead. Indeed, he adjusted quickly to living in Utah, though he had not even yet been here for a full year. "He loved it," Jhonny Marcano said.
Alberto Marcano's oldest son from a prior relationship lives in Brazil, but Alberto wanted to share his life here with his wife and their three younger kids. Getting them here from their hometown, Puerto la Cruz on the Caribbean coast, was his focus. Jhonny Marcano, as a naturalized U.S. citizen, was going to be their sponsor and he's still hoping to help his brother's widow and their three kids make it here.
"I just want the people to know that, yes, he was an immigrant, but he was doing everything right," Marcano said. His brother followed immigration law and procedures and had a Social Security card and Utah driver's license.
'Very, very distracted'
As for the accident last Thursday, Marcano said his brother was taking a colleague from work and her sister to the Salt Lake City International Airport for a flight when the rear driver's side tire went flat. He put on a safety vest and the car's emergency lights and pulled well off I-15 onto the shoulder to change the tire when he was struck from behind by an oncoming vehicle.
The errant driver, Marcano maintains, must have been "very, very distracted" given his brother's distance from the travel lane in the shoulder area. One of the two women Alberto Marcano was transporting was holding a light to assist him as he changed the flat tire and was also hit by the vehicle, sustaining a broken arm.
"It could have been avoided if the guy had been paying attention," Marcano charges.
Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Cameron Roden said the motorist "drifted off" I-15 in striking Alberto Marcano and the woman.
"He was on the shoulder. He was not in the travel lane," per findings from the initial investigation, Roden said. Troopers are still completing the investigation into the incident, though, and officials have said the driver who struck Marcano stopped and is cooperating with the investigation.
A celebration of life for Alberto Marcano is set for April 20, according to his brother.
