On March 1, a vigil at Eaton Plaza was held in honor of Jocelynn Rojo Carranza, an 11-year-old girl from Gainesville, Texas who committed suicide.
A Gainesville Independent School District investigation stated that Carranza was affected by bullying from another student. The investigation does not disclose what Carranza had been bullied for.
In another incident, Carranza overheard remarks about deportation and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), directed towards “a group of Hispanic students.” It also noted an allegation of sexual abuse from a family member.
Italia Mendoza, a Fresno City College student and the vigil’s organizer, said she collaborated with local activist organizations including FCC’s Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlan (MEChA) club.
Mendoza, a first-generation immigrant, noted her experience growing up during Donald Trump’s first term as U.S. president in which she began to hear hateful remarks from her white peers.
“I really saw myself in her,” Mendoza said.
She felt Carranza’s death was part of a broader context of increased hateful rhetoric against immigrants in the U.S.
The tragedy also comes at a time of strict immigration and deportation policies under Trump’s second presidential term.
“This war against immigrants hurts; 12 executive orders hurts. Now he wants to make English the official language of the land,” Gloria Hernandez, an activist with a local organization Raza Against War, said through a microphone.
Stan Santos, also with Raza Against War, spoke on the microphone about Carranza and highlighted the deaths of Wadea al-Fayoume, a 6-year-old boy who was killed in an Islamophobic/anti-Palestinian hate crime and Jakelin Caal Maquin, a 7-year-old girl who died in the custody of the U.S. Border Patrol.
Dozens of attendants watched as Mendoza read out Carranza’s obituary in English and Spanish. The obituary contained a list of hobbies Carranza loved, including dancing, music and being active.
“She was just a little girl like everybody else,” Jaki Ramirez, the president of MEChA at the College of the Sequoias, said.
Ramirez reacted to Carranza’s death with a feeling of understanding of her struggle.
“My initial feelings were like ‘Dang, she looks like me,’’ Ramirez said. “She looks like my little cousin, that could’ve easily been one of my family members.”
Irma Fruto-Muñiz, a Concheros dance teacher, led a ritual to honor Carranza, saying aloud her name and calling for the audience to face four directions.
“We need a lot of prayer to bring to her, so she can rest in peace,” Fruto-Muñiz said.
Mendoza said she told others the event would not be a protest so attendants could attend without worrying about law enforcement activity. In her closing remarks at the vigil, she asked for attendants to interact with one another.
“I wanted this to be something where community can just come together, very laidback and just enjoy their time together,” Mendoza said.
Both Ramirez and Mendoza called for preventions of another case like Carranza’s to include anti-bullying programs that account for xenophobia.
Ramirez said it was important for educational institutions to acknowledge their roots in white supremacy and have job positions focused on being conscious of social factors such as discrimination.
They felt it was necessary to hold schools accountable and to teach that racism is not a surface level concept.
“Kids aren’t stupid, they’re just little human beings. It’s time to take them serious and teach them these big grown concepts,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez felt hateful sentiments against Black people, Muslims and many minority groups are ingrained in society, which leads to children adopting these ideas, often unknowingly.
“It’s the responsibility of parents to teach their kids not to bully others,” Mendoza said. “Those kids that bullied her, they heard it from somewhere.”
