By The Chronicle Editorial Board
The South Valley Dia de Los Muertos Parade that occurred on November 1 this year included
the graduate student collective Cultivando Consciousness consisting of UNM students marching
with family and friends in representation of the 43 missing students from Ayotzinapa College.
As students, we at CNM should also be aware of and more involved with situations concerning
our peers all over the world.
This demonstration should serve as a reminder to not take things for granted. To speak up when
something is on our minds and especially when others are trying to shut us down. For our
brothers who had to die to be noticed.
In the parade, the collective walked to remind the community that the issue is still present.
September 26 of this year was the one year anniversary of the mass kidnapping of students from
Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico. It has been a year and Mexican officials have yet to account for 43 of
those students.
The 43 missing students were from a public college specifically for training teachers. Students at
the college were mostly from lower income families and on the day that they disappeared along
with about 60 other students they were on their way to protest their government favoring funds
for urban colleges over rural ones.
The students had acquired buses for their trip to Iguala and were reportedly stopped on their way
by police in an attempt to prevent them from carrying out the protest. The students attempted to
drive away and in the car chase police opened fire on them killing two students and prompting
many others to flee. A majority of the students were arrested and supposedly handed over to a
gang to be executed.
Many people still hope that the students are alive and in fact demand the Mexican government to
return them alive because they were taken alive.
Cultivando Consciousness like many other groups refuse to let the missing students go forgotten
because they represent those of us that get overlooked for being small. They represent the
problems that are often times rooted in the governments. And the levels of violence that these
governments are willing to reach to avoid confrontation and to instill fear in anybody else
looking to speak up.
We owe the missing students our attention and support. We must not let their intentions be
forgotten. We must not let them die in vain. We can continue what they started by being aware of
our situations here with our own governments.
