Oak Park residents recited poems, sang protest anthems, and lit candles Friday night in honor of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Joan Sebastian Gurerro, residents of Texas and Maine who were shot and killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers earlier this month.
“I know the community here [in Oak Park] is very active and very conscious about what is happening to our immigrant brothers and sisters,” said Maureen Meshenberg, who described herself as a “concerned neighbor” who helped organize the vigil at Scoville Park, Lake Street at Oak Park Avenue. “I knew the people would come.
Meshenberg said the vigil was part of a nationwide movement supported by the Disappeared in America campaign, which coordinates nonviolent action in support of immigrants’ rights. The vigil included a poetry reading from Meshenberg, performances from Oak Park’s chapter of the national protest group Singing Resistance, speeches from various community leaders, and a moment of silence.
Elizabeth, a member of the Singing Resistance who chose not to provide her last name for reasons of safety, told Wednesday Journal there was a “unifying effect to everybody singing the same song at the same time.” Elizabeth and the other Singing Resistance members present at the vigil led attendees through call-and-response protest anthems, such as one involving the repetition of the phrase “you cannot erase them.”
Juan Munoz, an Oak Park township trustee, also spoke at the vigil. In addition to commemorating the deceased, Muñoz spoke about the impact ICE activity can have on an entire community. He referenced his own detainment by ICE last fall, when he was arrested while protesting outside the Broadview ICE facility.
“The trauma of what ICE is doing in our communities does not end when someone is released. It does not end with a funeral. It lives in the families who are afraid,” Muñoz said in his speech. “For too many Latinos, our humanity is measured by our legal status.”
Betty Alzamora, a park district commissioner in Forest Park, spoke at the vigil. She has been volunteering and advocating for immigration-related issues for 30 years. Currently, she volunteers with PASO, or the West Suburban Action Project, which serves and supports immigrants in Chicago’s western suburbs.
“It is a sad and brutal reality that this is the world we have come to live in, that we are seeing abductions taking place on a daily basis. We’ve seen it here in Oak Park. We’ve seen it in communities nearby,” she said.
Jane Hseu, who attended the vigil, also noted the ICE activity in and around Oak Park. She said that activity is part of the reason she felt the need to attend events like Friday’s vigil.
“It’s all around us,” Hseu said. “They took somebody in Oak Park like a week or two ago, and it’s all over the Chicago area.”
Alzamora emphasized the importance of local and community organizations. She said while it has escalated in recent years, the ICE activity vigil attendees were protesting was not new.
“I’ve worked with too many families who have lost family members to these kidnappings, these disappearances. It has not been something that has just popped up over the last two years,” Alzamora said.