Concho Valley Martial Arts holds TaeKwon-Do tournament in honor of Emilia and Maria Tambunga

San Angelo—Concho Valley Martial Arts Center of San Angelo recently held a tournament in honor of Emilia Tambunga, a former student who died along with her grandmother Maria “Coke” Tambunga. The two were fatally injured when a human smuggler evading law enforcement crashed into their vehicle.

TaeKwon-Do master and chief instructor at the center, Frank Galindo III, organized the tournament to raise awareness.

“The ultimate goal of our tournament was to promote awareness of all the human trafficking and other scary issues, and to discuss how these things affect our local communities,” Galindo said. “We don’t want to admit it, but they happen in our backyard.”

The tournament, which was held at the San Angelo Central freshman campus, drew over 45 martial arts students from all across the state, and even some from as far as Albuquerque.

“I’ve known [the Tambunga family] for years,” Galindo said. “I trained Emilia’s grandfather and her mother, and then I had the honor to train her. In fact, their family is the whole reason I held classes in Ozona.

“In March, we had about a month or two left of classes, when I heard what had happened to their family. I was heartbroken.

“A few days later, we traveled to Houston for a major tournament. My students were mourning. After the national anthem, I was given the floor to announce Emilia’s death,” he said. “The bottom line was, our TaeKwon-Do family wanted to do more.”

From this announcement came Galindo’s idea for an awareness tournament and campaign held in San Angelo.

“Not only would it be a memorial tournament, but also for awareness about a cause we care about,” Galindo said.

Though this tournament was held in the summer, the hope is an annual event will occur each February or March.

“I am very hopeful for the future of this tournament,” Galindo said. “Even if I can’t say that we will still be doing this for years to come, we all know there will always be someone in need. Advocating for policy change as a martial arts community is an impactful and important thing, especially with issues we have first-hand experience with.

“If we spread awareness little by little, and bring issues to the light more and more, eventually something has to change.

“I just know Emilia would have been right in the middle of this tournament. Her grandfather competed and won second place in his events. It was amazing to see people, young and old, all competing and excited for a common cause.”