The drum beats on. Da Dum. Da Dum. Da Dum.
They walk. They walk for the people who have died. They walk for the dying. They walk for those who will die.
They just completed a vigil where they read the names of every one of the 206 of people who have been found dead this year trying to cross from Mexico to a new life in the United States.
“MOVIMIENTO is a community-based group of mainly Chicano, Mexican and Native youth of Tucson organizing for migrant rights,” says Toltecalli student Anahiza Carrillo. “We organize to create a positive environment, free from injustices and oppression. Our work is dedicated on building leadership and power among the youth and families in our communities.”
Teoxicalli consist of members of the Xicano Indigenous community living in Tucson who wish to offer a historical, cultural, and spiritual approach to our inter-personal relationships with each other and the Earth.
“When people die here —like whites¬—it’s a big thing,” says Toltecalli student Marcos Romero. “But when the Mexicans die crossing the border, it’s nothing.”
Romero and his compañeros will soon join students from Wakefield Middle School who are holding a more traditional Dia de los Muertos celebration with Jóvenes Sanos and the FIESTA After-school Program.
The Toltecalli students have recently organized to fight for human rights with help from their teacher Raul Alcaraz and others in the community.
Alcaraz says in MOVIMIENTO, students discuss social issues and wanted to do something about injustices they had become aware of. They continue to meet to raise their own awareness, but also to figure out ways they can protest the racism they experience.
In October, leadership class students held a press conference to protest a Halloween costume dubbed “Illegal Alien,” which features an orange prison jumpsuit, a typical-looking extraterrestrial mask and a green card.
“No human being is an alien,” says Pablo Castillo, a Toltecalli student. “We are just people trying to be successful in life. No one should be disrespected in that way.”
Immigrant advocacy groups from Florida to California similarly protested, and consequently the costume was pulled from Target, Walgreens and eBay.
Alcaraz agrees, “They are criminalizing a whole community and that’s why we feel this costume is very dangerous because it represents what society thinks of us.”
The leadership class members say they organized the press conference and the walk because they were disappointed with the news media and its lack of coverage of issues important to them.
The early November walk to Wakefield was organized by MOVIMIENTO along with Calpulli Teoxicalli, Jóvenes Sanos, others from Toltecalli, the Aztlan Boxing Club, as well as friends and family members.
In the Toltecalli High School parking lot, a circle of 50 plus people stood quietly as Edgar Toledo and Maria Aparicio read off the names of every person found dead in the desert near the U.S. - Mexico border this year. Attendants bowed their heads in respect.
Names were called out, one-by-one. Everyone responded, “presente.” Sometimes there would be stretches of “unknowns” being called off, creating a somber air as everyone thought about the mother, father, brother or sister, who was never honored by their family after their death.
They then grouped around Jesús Ruiz and Maria Molina of Calpulli Teoxicalli, dressed in typical Dia de los Muertos clothing, as they performed a traditional dance and chanted, accompanied by a drum and conch shell.
The group joined in, turning to face each cardinal direction, kneeling to the ground when asked. They chanted and stared intently as the woman danced with a large chalice of burning incense.
They organized into two lines holding white crosses with “desconocido” or “desconocida,” (unknown) written in large black letters across the front. Some held lit candles.
Then they walked.
They walked to Wakefield Middle School, 45 minutes away, where students were holding a Dia de los Muertos celebration to honor the lives of family or friends who had died. The two schools joined and sang along with a mariachi band and later shared a meal of traditional Mexican food.
The rituals and the sharing of food have left the students in a thoughtful mood. Liliana Gamez, a Toltecalli student spoke of her father, who she hasn’t seen in five years, because he was stopped by police and did not have appropriate identification.
He went to jail for three years and was then deported.
“I wasn’t even born when he came here,” she sways softly, shaking her head in frustration. “He was very young when he came here. We are just trying to have a better life.”
She plans to become lawyer so she can help immigrants so families will not be torn apart by the border.
“A lawyer to help Mexicans; help the immigrants,” she says firmly. “To stop the death and stop the racism. Hopefully I’ll stop it. That’s my goal right now.”
