SACRAMENTO, Calif. — ShaVolla Rodriguez, who lives in Sacramento, says someone robbed, shot, and killed her father, Raymond Vasquez. It happened in North Richmond on November 30, 2018. He was 60 years old.
"It's very sad," said Rodriguez. "My father, to me, he was a very loving and giving man. He was at the point of turning his life around. It was an unfortunate circumstance."
Rodriguez is not the only one, mourning the loss of a loved one due to gun violence in predominantly Hispanic communities.
On Tuesday, a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas left at least 19 children and two teachers dead. Most of the victims were Hispanic and Latino people.
"How can this keep happening?," asked Rodriguez. "It's going to take years of counseling to help recover from this trauma, for both the kids who have witnessed this and the families."
Hispanic people are disproportionately affected by gun violence in the United States. That's according to Violence Policy Center, a national educational organization working to stop gun death and injury.
The nonprofit released a study in 2021 titled "Hispanic Victims of Lethal Firearms Violence in the United States." It shows nearly 70,000 Latino people were killed by guns between 1999 and 2019, including 44,614 gun homicide victims and 21,466 gun suicides.
According to the same study, a large percentage of Hispanic homicide victims are young, too. The most recent available data shows that 33% of victims in 2019 were age 24 and younger. In comparison, 34% of Black homicide victims and 19% of white homicide victims were age 24 and younger that same year.
The Latino Center of Art and Culture (LCAC) is a nonprofit on a mission "to foster artistic, economic and cultural development of the Sacramento region's Latinx community by presenting, exhibiting, and providing excellent artistic programs and services to Latinx artists, organizations and families."
The nonprofit also works to seek social justice for marginalized and underrepresented communities. In response to the latest tragedy in Texas, LCAC is offering a safe space for Hispanic, Latino, and other communities to heal, together.
"Creating this space allows people to feel a sense of belonging and included in their communities," said Carissa Gutierrez, Board Chair, Latino Center of Art and Culture. "What we see, playing out in the news, is stories of people who feel so disconnected from their communities and each other, that they're able to walk into spaces and take lives purely because they do not see a human connection. At the center, we remind each other that we're connected. We do this through the arts."
The Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is also working to uplift Hispanic, Latino, and other communities amid senseless gun violence throughout the nation. The mission of the Chamber is to "promote and develop business growth for members and to provide access to the Hispanic market."
The Chamber also partners with other Hispanic-led organizations, like La Familia Counseling Center, to help raise awareness about mental health and coping strategies when the unthinkable happens.
"This one hit me really hard," said Cathy Rodriguez Aguirre, President and CEO, Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "When we see these tragedies, they are horrific on all ends. But, there is something about it when you see those faces, reflecting back at you, and they look so much like my own nieces and nephews. The parents that I see, in Uvalde, look like my tios and tias, and all of a sudden, I just felt so connected."
For many Hispanic and Latino people, the mass shooting in Uvalde is a tragic reminder of the killings that happened at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas on August 3, 2019. At least 23 people were gunned down, the majority of them Latinos, by an alleged white supremacist. It's regarded as the deadliest attack on Latinos in modern U.S. history.
"It's not just our community," said Rodriguez. "This is happening in all people of color communities."
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