On September 13, 2001, Lillian Garcia stood in the center of a WWE ring — alone — with tens of thousands of eyeballs on her at the Compaq Center in Houston, Texas. Normally the WWE's ring announcer, Garcia had been tasked with a nominal-turned-monumental duty — singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" — two days after the most significant terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
More than 1,600 miles away, in the shadows of the ever-altered New York City skyline, 10-year-old Thea Trinidad watched — as she always did — after experiencing an upheaval most do at some point in their life, but few as suddenly as her.
"That one's specifically always stuck out to me," Trinidad, a former WWE champion who performed under the alias Zelina Vega, tells Uncrowned. "I remember that one specifically, I saw all of the wrestlers get really emotional and seeing Lillian, still I always tell her: 'Yours is still my favorite to hear.'
"It just felt like, in that moment, the thing that I loved most was kind of shining a light on my dad. In a way, it kind of felt like it was just for 9/11, and it felt like it was just for those people. And I think in a weird way, it was important for us to feel that, because everyone else just felt like you were a thing, like a spectacle. You were someone to look at. You almost felt like you were the circus animal, and you were like, 'Oh, look, they dealt with that,' or, 'Oh, look, her dad died.' It just felt like wrestling was the thing that I've always felt seen in."
Thea and her brother Timothy are seen in a photo with their father, Michael. (Photos courtesy of Thea Trinidad)
#thea #lillian
More than 1,600 miles away, in the shadows of the ever-altered New York City skyline, 10-year-old Thea Trinidad watched — as she always did — after experiencing an upheaval most do at some point in their life, but few as suddenly as her.
"That one's specifically always stuck out to me," Trinidad, a former WWE champion who performed under the alias Zelina Vega, tells Uncrowned. "I remember that one specifically, I saw all of the wrestlers get really emotional and seeing Lillian, still I always tell her: 'Yours is still my favorite to hear.'
"It just felt like, in that moment, the thing that I loved most was kind of shining a light on my dad. In a way, it kind of felt like it was just for 9/11, and it felt like it was just for those people. And I think in a weird way, it was important for us to feel that, because everyone else just felt like you were a thing, like a spectacle. You were someone to look at. You almost felt like you were the circus animal, and you were like, 'Oh, look, they dealt with that,' or, 'Oh, look, her dad died.' It just felt like wrestling was the thing that I've always felt seen in."
Thea and her brother Timothy are seen in a photo with their father, Michael. (Photos courtesy of Thea Trinidad)
#thea #lillian
2 months ago
