José Alexander Reyes Portillo is 49 years old, and on that July 1 he could not call his family to celebrate. He was in La Guaira, Venezuela, with El Salvador’s USAR rescue team, searching for survivors among the rubble left by the June 24 earthquakes. 🇸🇻
Days earlier he had helped pull Nayarit Colmenare and Belkys Josefina Barreto García out alive. The neighbors in the area did not forget that. So when his birthday arrived, they showed up with two cakes and sang “Happy Birthday” to him in the midst of the tragedy they were still living through.
A Salvadoran rescuer who is in Venezuela right now could not celebrate his birthday with his family, but he ended up getting a lovely surprise from the neighbors. pic.twitter.com/gGplTbmd0a
— ceciarmy (@ceciarmy) July 2, 2026
They say his voice broke. It’s no wonder: he left his loved ones to care for strangers, and those strangers ended up being the ones who joined him in blowing out the candles. 🎂❤️