Boxer Hector "Macho" Camacho's funeral is in East Harlem today, and friends and family said goodbye to him yesterday at a public wake in East Harlem. Camacho died last week at age 50 after being pulled from life support at a Puerto Rican hospital. Though Camacho was born in Puerto Rico, he grew up in New York, and his family had his body flown here from San Juan to be buried.
A white horse-drawn carriage carried Camacho's casket, which was covered by a Puerto Rican flag, via Fifth Ave to and from St. Cecilia's Catholic Church on East 106th St. Fans in apartment buildings along the route waved mini-Puerto Rican flags out of windows and held photos of Camcho in celebration of his life, and the line outside St. Cecilia's church stretched on for several blocks.
There was another wake for Camacho on Puerto Rico on Tuesday, where a fight broke out between two women who claimed they were Camacho's last girlfriends and two of Camacho's sisters. The fight was prompted when Cynthia Castillo, a woman who says she was dating Camacho at the time of his death, kissed Camacho's body on the mouth, spurring the other women to lash out against her.
Camacho, whose career was checkered with legal troubles, was put on life support on Nov. 20 after being shot in the face while he and a friend sat in a parked car in Bayomon, Puerto Rico. He will be buried at St. Raymond's Cemetery in the Bronx.
