Eessa Andrew Arellano

My beloved, beautiful baby boy.

Eessa was loved long before we ever had the chance to hold him. During the sixteen weeks I carried him beneath my heart, we did not simply wait for his arrival—we began building a life around him. We dreamed of his first smile, his first steps, his first words, his first day of school, and the young man he would one day become.

Before he was born, I began writing books especially for him. They were to be his morning, afternoon, and bedtime stories—stories filled with love, faith, gratitude, language, numbers, colors, history, and wonder. Above all, I wanted every story to leave him knowing something he would never have to question: you are loved. I love you. Dooset daram. Te amo.

A Son of Rich Civilizations - Eessa was going to grow up knowing that he came from rich civilizations with deep histories of learning, art, family, faith, endurance, and imagination. Through his mother, he carried his Persian heritage; through his father, Andrew, he carried his Mexican heritage; and through both of us, he was our American son. I wanted him to understand that these were not competing identities. They were beautiful inheritances that met in him.

I wanted to tell him about ancient Persia and Persepolis—the monumental art and architecture, the inscriptions and languages, he traditions of governance and exchange, and a civilization connected across a vast and diverse world. I wanted him to look upward and learn about the long Persian traditions of poetry, mathematics, medicine, philosophy, and astronomy, and to understand that knowledge, beauty, and curiosity were part of the heritage behind him.

From his Mexican heritage, I wanted him to discover civilizations whose achievements were equally extraordinary: the Maya and their sophisticated writing, mathematics, calendars, astronomy, architecture, and cities; the Mexica, or Aztecs, with their remarkable capital, art, agriculture, markets, traditions, and complex understanding of the world around them. I wanted him to learn about maize, ancient symbols, the sun and stars, family traditions, music, food, language, celebration, resilience, and the many peoples and histories that make Mexico so culturally rich.

I wanted Eessa to understand that the richness of a civilization is not measured only by monuments or empires. It lives in language, knowledge, family, memory, art, faith, food, stories, music, science, and the values one generation passes to the next. Those were the treasures I wanted to place in his little hands through the stories I wrote for him.

And Eessa would have carried those inheritances forward in a distinctly American life. He was our Persian-Mexican-American boy—a child in whom different histories, languages, families, and traditions came together. I dreamed of watching him become a man who never felt that he had to choose one part of himself over another: an American man proud of his Persian roots, proud of his Mexican roots, and confident that all of them belonged to him.

That made him special to us. In Eessa, ancient Persia and Mexico were not distant places in a history book. They became family. They met in one tiny child, beneath one tiny heartbeat, with an American future waiting before him.

The Meaning of His Name — Saved, Not Perished - We named our son Eessa Andrew Arellano with purpose. Eessa is our spelling of ʿĪsā, the Qur'anic name for Jesus Christ, Jesus son of Mary. I named him after Jesus because Eessa was my miracle baby—the child I had dreamed of and prayed for, the little life whose very existence felt miraculous to me.

The ancient name associated with Jesus, Yeshua, carries the idea that God saves or God is salvation. There is also an interpretation that has become deeply meaningful to our family: a contrast between being saved and being perished or lost. Whatever the debated linguistic history of the names may be, that message now expresses exactly what Eessa's name means in our hearts.

Saved, not perished.

Eessa did not perish from our lives. He was saved into them. He is saved in the stories I wrote for him, in the dreams his father and I had for him, in every photograph and memory, in every person who prayed for him and loved him, and in every heart that has been changed because our little boy existed.

I named Eessa after Jesus before I knew how desperately I would one day need the meaning I now find in his name. Although I could not keep my son in my arms, I will never speak of his existence as though he simply disappeared. His life made me his mother. His life made Andrew his father. Death cannot undo those truths.

The Life and Love He Brought - Eessa changed so much around him in such a short time. He brought people together. He inspired prayer, tenderness, compassion, generosity, and love. He changed his mother and father forever, and his story is continuing to touch people who never had the chance to meet him.

The books that were originally written for him will now continue because of him. Every child who someday learns a Persian word, a Spanish phrase, a piece of history, a lesson in kindness, or simply how to say “I love you” through those stories will carry a little piece of Eessa forward.

A life does not have to be long to change the world. Eessa's earthly life was sixteen weeks, but the love he created has no such limit. His story can travel farther than we ever imagined.

A Promise to Our Son - My beloved, beautiful baby boy, no one should ever have to endure what you went through. No mother or parent should have to face the pain and emotional strain caused by the sudden, unexplainable loss of their child.

We refuse to let your death be in vain or brushed aside. We will stand for justice for you and for many other children like you. Your life mattered. Your story matters. And we will carry your name with us as we seek answers, accountability, and a future in which other families may be spared this pain.

How We Want the World to Remember Eessa - Remember the little boy whose mother was already writing him bedtime stories. Remember the miracle baby whose parents dreamed of teaching him three languages and the histories of both sides of his family. Remember a Persian-Mexican-American child who carried within him the meeting of civilizations, cultures, languages, and generations. Remember the child whose name was chosen in faith. Remember the tiny boy who brought an immeasurable amount of love into this world.

Eessa — saved in our hearts.

Saved in our family.

Saved in his stories.

Saved in every life his story will touch.

Not perished. Not forgotten. Never erased from our lives.

Eessa Andrew Arellano is, and will always be, our son. He was so loved, so wanted, and is so deeply missed. His name, his stories, his cultures, his love, and his legacy will live on.