Recent Grad's Success Was Spurred by His Brother's Memory
Fabian Rincon graduated from Georgia State in May as an exemplary student, finishing with advanced honors and a 3.8 grade point average.
But Rincon's impressive academic record is only a small part of his story. Three years ago, he was thrust into the national limelight in the wake of a family tragedy: the death of his younger brother, Diego, in Iraq.
Diego Rincon, a 19-year-old private in the U.S. Army, died March 29, 2003, in Najaf, a victim of the first known suicide bombing in the Iraq War. But since Diego and his family had immigrated to America from Colombia in 1989, he wasn't a U.S. citizen at the time of his death.
Partly inspired by Diego's heroism, Congress enacted a law in the spring of 2003 that automatically conferred posthumous citizenship on any soldier who died in combat. The Rincons received Diego's citizenship papers at his funeral.
It didn't take long for the family to start getting calls from reporters who wanted to share Diego's story with the public. But his parents, Jorge and Yolanda, were too devastated to speak, so the duty fell to 20-year-old Fabian.
"If somebody wanted to know his story, he wouldn't have been shy about it," says Fabian, who is now 23. "I decided I was going to honor his memory by doing what he would do."
Fabian had always been the reserved one, but he rose to the occasion, even going on "Good Morning America" to talk about his brother. He also gave extensive interviews to writer A.E. Dimond, who wrote a 2004 book about the Rincons' story titled My Country to Defend.
Stepping up for his family, Fabian says, gave him the courage to meet new challenges.
"We all have it within ourselves to find out that we're better than we thought we were," he says. "I found out I could be this person who I thought I couldn’t be."
Fabian plans to take a year off after graduation before going on to law school. He's on track to attain U.S. citizenship by the end of the year. Fabian thinks often of his brother, and although he'll never know how his brother's life might have turned out, he has a pretty good idea of what Diego would have made of his accomplishments.
"I think he would have been proud of what I've done," he says.