On Monday afternoon, more than a dozen students gathered just outside the EMU Amphitheater, huddled around small candles that weighed down pieces of paper, each with a name written on it.
Each read part of a statement that paid respects to 41 teenage girls — whose names were written on the pieces of paper — who died in a fire at a children’s home in Guatemala in March 2017.
“Although the 41 girls are not physically here with us,” the students read, “their spirits remain and bring us together, locally and trans-nationally, to continue lighting up the flames of rage, love and justice!”
The vigil, hosted by the University of Oregon Muxeres, honored the victims of a fire at a children’s home, Hogar Seguro Virgen de la Asunción, which housed at-risk youth but faces a long history of physical, psychological and sexual abuse allegations, according to The New York Times.
“We thought it would be fitting to help host this event to raise awareness and pay respect to women in the Latinx community and beyond, specifically women who have faced violence within the Latinx community,” Muxeres Internal Director Jennifer Méndez said.
Muxeres is a UO group for Latinx and Chicanx students to discuss issues particularly impacting Latinas and nonbinary allies on campus, Méndez, a sophomore majoring in public relations and minoring in legal studies, said. She added that the event intended to raise awareness about gender violence and other injustices in Latin America and beyond.
In March 2017, officials of the state-run group home in Guatemala locked the teenage girls in a small classroom, and the boys in an auditorium, after the teens attempted to flee the home. After hours of being trapped, the girls lit their mattresses on fire, thinking that the employees would have to let them out, or that the police would come.
Instead, 41 teenage girls died in “one of the deadliest tragedies in Guatemala since the end of its civil war decades ago,” the Times reported.
“To me, it’s a case of femicide. But the state, of course, blames the girls,” Carla Osorio, a Ph.D. student studying geography who helped Muxeres plan the vigil, said.
“This story of the girls really hits home,” Osorio, who is from Guatemala, said.
Editor’s note: An Emerald reporter is a member of Muxeres, but had no role in publishing this story.
