After Colorado Shootings, A Mostly Hispanic Aurora Community Grieves
By Amanda Edwards, Voxxi
The city of Aurora is a diverse one with less than 50 percent of its population being white. As a resident, I can tell you that the Spanish section at the library across the street from the movie theater is the largest I have ever seen. With such a large Hispanic population, it stands to reason that some of the victims of last week’s massacre were Hispanic and many of those mourning are as well.
At the memorial site, I hear prayer in English, songs in Spanish, and see people of all colors and backgrounds hugging and crying together. Crosses are decorated with everything from candles to flowers to stuffed animals and signs with words like “nunca olvides” and “gone but not forgotten.”
The New York Times described Aurora as being “gang-ridden” and largely Hispanic, with James Holmes being one of the only white people in the neighborhood. It’s true that Aurora is often called “Saudi Aurora” due to the lack of “white people” in the area but it’s far from the mean streets of other major cities in this country. It’s true there are occasional shootings, robberies, and gang activity but what major city doesn’t have these things? As a white-looking, white-talking mother of a blond, blue-eyed child, I sometimes feel out-of-place in this neighborhood, but that does not mean it’s the barrio.
The New York Times reporting and perhaps the nationwide perception of Aurora is a bit sensationalized. In fact, the City of Aurora website describes the strategies taken to reduce crime and gang activity while highlighting that Aurora was on Forbes Magazine’s safest cities list in 2011. A large Hispanic population does not mean lots of gangs.
Perhaps one of the people who best defy this Hispanic-equals-gang-ridden stereotype was lost in last week’s shooting. Rebecca Wingo was a young mother of two girls who was a stand-out student, mother, and citizen. The Denver Post reported Rebecca’s father, Steve Hernandez, as having written on his Facebook wall, “I lost my daughter yesterday to a mad man, my grief right now is inconsolable, I hear she died instantly, without pain, however the pain is unbearable.”
Rebecca was (according to the Denver Post), “a woman who always sat in the first row at church, who devoured books in a single sitting, and always seemed to be juggling multiple projects.” She worked for the U.S. Air Force as a translator while raising her two girls. Rebecca’s goals included becoming a social worker to serve children in the foster system. Her mother has discussed publicly that Rebecca was a generous member of her community, often slipping her last dollar bill to a man or woman on a street corner.
Rebecca will be missed by her family as well as her community, Hispanic or not.
The community grieves the loss of a model citizen who represented her Hispanic heritage well, defying stereotypes and setting an example for her children.
A story, that still awaits an ending is that of Katie and Caleb Medley. Katie, 21, nine months pregnant at the time of the shooting was spared while husband Caleb, 24, was shot in the face and remains in critical condition at the hospital. Katie gave birth to their son Hugo, Tuesday morning.
MSNBC reported that Katie’s father David Sanchez said of his son-in-law Caleb, “He’s in critical but stable condition, so we’re praying for him. I think the main concern is him right now, and the baby being born.”
Now does not feel like the right time for us to be debating politics or gun control – it’s a time to process and heal instead.
Aurora is now a quiet place. We wait for news of the monster who threatened our community while we support each other through understanding what happened and why.
As a city, we’ve always been pretty respectful, even trying not to kill the prairie dogs that seem to want to die as they run into the street, picking up after ourselves in the Early Reader Room at the Aurora Public Library, sayingdisculpeme when we accidentally bump shopping carts at our local King Soopers.
Yes, we’re mourning the loss of Rebecca and the other eleven people killed, but I believe we’re also mourning a bit of the innocence we had that has been further chipped away. For that loss, the largely Hispanic city of Aurora remains hushed and somber, the memorial growing by the hour, as the victims’ and heroes’ (mostly one in the same) stories are told and we promise to never forget.
This article was first published in Voxxi.
Amanda Devine is a mom, a wife, a college graduate, a certified yoga instructor, and a counselor. She blogs about life´s challenges at motherofambition.blogspot.com. Based in Colorado, Amanda enjoys spending time with her family, cooking healthy food, and advocating for natural parenting. @momofambition
[Photo by Mattox]