Caravana 43 Arrives in Chicago
April 6, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From readers:
April 4—A march and rally today in Chicago welcomed and supported relatives and a student survivor of the massacre and kidnapping of 43 Ayotzinapa students in southern Mexico. They are caravanning through the United States.
This Midwest leg of the caravan was composed of María de Jesús Tlatempa Bello, mother of the disappeared student José Eduardo Bartolo Tlatempa; Cruz Bautista Salvador, a teacher and the uncle of the disappeared student Benjamin Bautista Salvador; and Omar, “the 44th”—one of the Ayotzinapa students who survived.
Chicago, April 4, 2015: María de Jesús Tlatempa Bello, mother of the disappeared student Jose Eduardo, speaks at a march and rally in Chicago in support of victims of the massacre and kidnapping of 43 Ayotzinapa students in southern Mexico. One of the main slogans of the Caravana43 is "¡Vivos se los llevaron, vivos los queremos!" (Alive You Took Them, We Want Them Alive!)
Photo: Special to revcom.us
These three people from the caravan brought powerful testimonies about the killings and the disappearance of 43 students from the teachers college at Ayotzinapa in southern Mexico last September 26. They revealed how the Mexican government has lied about the facts and officially closed the case and how this horror is part of a much larger problem in Mexico and internationally. They rejected and called out the efforts of the Mexican authorities to buy them off, and have stood up against the threats and slander campaigns against them. The courage and determination of the parents and surviving students has inspired powerful waves of struggle in Mexico. They also exposed how the U.S. government is implicated in these crimes because of its role in sponsoring Mexico’s war against its people, and one speaker referenced the epidemic of police murders in this country.
The crowd of majority Mexican immigrants and second-generation youth swelled to 250-300 people as we marched through the neighborhood. Chants in Spanish rang through the streets, including one which counted “uno, dos, tres...” up to 43 for the disappeared students. At one point, the police ordered the march to move to the sidewalk, but the marchers would have none of that, chanting at the cops, “asesinos, asesinos” (murderers), linking their anger over the 43 missing students and the murders of so many at the hands of the police in this country.
Chicago, April 4. Gloria Pinex, mother of Darius Pinex who was murdered by Chicago police in 2011, carries a banner together with Omar, an Ayotzinapa student who survived the massacre and kidnaping by police of Mexican students from a teachers college on September 26, 2014. The banner reads: "Never Forgive! Never Forget! 43 Are Missing."
Photo: Special to revcom.us
News of the upcoming nationwide April 14 shutdown to stop police murder on the front page of Revolución/Revolution newspaper, and the Stolen Lives poster were greeted warmly. A contingent of students from Valparaiso University in Indiana, fresh from organizing a campus march in support of the Ayotzinapa struggle, are going to hook up with the Stop Mass Incarceration Network nationally and be part of #ShutdownA14. Others from several local colleges and a high school took copies of the Stolen Lives Revolución/Revolution centerfold and A14 stickers.
Gloria Pinex, whose son Darius was murdered by Chicago police, and other Chicago Revolution Club members joined the march to welcome Caravana 43 through the largely Mexican Pilsen neighborhood. She was introduced to the mother of one missing student, and they embraced, sharing pain and the struggle for justice. Afterwards Gloria remarked that she felt really welcomed. She pointed to the banner of the 43 missing from Ayotzinapa and said, “That is like our stolen lives banner.” Gloria and the Revolution Club members were invited to bring the Stolen Lives banner to the head of the march and join the Ayotzinapa families.
A thrilling moment took place at the end of the march when Gloria finished her short message and someone in the crowd called out “Hands Up,” then the response “Don’t Shoot”—and throughout the largely Mexican crowd people put their hands in the air and chanted in English, “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!”
Volunteers Needed... for revcom.us and Revolution
If you like this article, subscribe, donate to and sustain Revolution newspaper.