CLAUDIA PATRICIA GUZMAN PRESENTE!

Pedro Sosa reading the poem at the vigil for Claudia Patricia.

DISCOURAGED AND DISHEARTENED is how I felt yesterday at the monthly vigil outside the ICE office.  WHY?  

Answer:  To somehow do something to show my outrage over the murder of a 20 year old girl from Guatemala whose only crime was trying to enter the United States.  She was brutally murdered by a Border Patrol agent.  
A Mexican woman video taped the killing and then later, was harassed by Border Patrol agents for putting it up on Facebook.  
Claudia Patricia is a Maya Mam speaker from San Juan Ostuncalco, Guatemala.  My heart broke open when I realized that I knew her village.  Many years ago, I lived on the altiplano above this village in San Francisco La Union.

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Prayer Card for Claudia Patricia Guzman

A poem was read at the vigil - In Spanish, La Flor Amarilla de los Sepulcros/The Yellow Flower of the Tombs.   
 One stanza reads:  Why do we look for refuge in another place?  Why must we become pilgrims?
   "Here no one wants peace, one can die of hunger, the men are blind, the laws are deaf (to our pleas), the shadows of crimes extend their wings until they touch the light."
   It is a beautiful poem in Spanish and my translation doesn't do it justice, but the sentiments are clear as to why people flee their country to travel north to the United States.
   There will be a misa/mass tomorrow at St. Andrew's Roman Catholic Church with a Guatemalan indigenous congregation; a vigil outside a mortuary on Sunday in Salem, Oregon.  
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A prayer card of Claudia Patricia was shared at the vigil - her photo on the front with a prayer to the Virgin of Guadeloupe on the back. This is a tradition in many Latin American countries when someone dies.  Look at her and remember her and all the others who have died trying to enter the United States. After you say her name, say PRESENTE!  She is still with us.

I am outraged, sad, frustrated - how do we stop the killing?  Or the bigger questions - ending poverty in Guatemala and other countries where people leave because there are no jobs or there are too many drugs and violence and...fill in the blanks.

No actions in today's blog - only to remember Claudia Patricia and always let our government know that we are not in agreement with separating families and killing people who are seeking a safe sanctuary.  May it be so.