Thursday, September 29, 2016
WHAT’S INSIDE
Kneeling Down
Album to Dye For
Kaepernick’s protest is growing stronger by the day
Looking at Frank Ocean’s longawaited record SPORTS, PAGE 8
Microaggressions Student ignorance destroys campus inclusivity OPINION, PAGE 6
SCENE, PAGE 4
Midnight Vandals Deface Memorial
Remembering the Forgotten
Campus inclusivity called into question after commemorative display defiled Sophie Mattson & Jenni Sigl The Santa Clara
PHOTOS BY ETHAN AYSON
In response to the vandalism of a memorial honoring 43 kidnapped students from Mexico, the Santa Clara community gathered on the anniversary of the tragedy to show their continued support for the victims by placing Post-it notes containing heartfelt words on the silhouette figures.
The university community is expressing outrage and disgust at the recent vandalism of a memorial honoring the 43 students who were kidnapped in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico in 2014. Vandals allegedly damaged a memorial of 42 black-painted wooden silhouettes of people and a forty-third silhouette constructed out of a mirror, which invites people to imagine themselves as one of the students, who all attended Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College. Between midnight and 2 a.m. the night of Sept. 23, two female perpetrators were caught on CCTV footage moving down the mirrored silhouette and karate-kicking several other figures, according to Steve Lee, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “Irony of ironies, the figure that was mowed to the ground by the two women, is of the figure that represents the only one of the 43 that has been confirmed killed,” Lee said. “So, interesting irony.” The perpetrators allegedly ended up breaking the back of the mirrored silhouette and branding it with scuff marks after they attempted to break the figure in half. The mirrored figure also appeared to be sprayed with an unknown substance, and one of the wooden silhouettes was broken in half, according to Lee. The incident wasn’t the first time the figures were vandalized. On Sept. 18, an unknown person knocked down the figures and attempted to break them in half with kicks, Lee said. “Many of the perpetrators are not walking, apparently, in very straight lines,” Lee said. Campus Safety has yet to identify the perpetrators from the vandalism that occurred this weekend and confirm whether or not they are indeed Santa Clara students. “Campus Safety has cameras everywhere and so we have a lot of footage of students using the figures as karate targets, students walking by and clotheslining the figures all in a row,” Lee said. To honor the missing students and stand up against the vandalism, Dennis Gordon, director of Santa Clara’s Center for the Arts and Humanities, called upon the campus community to place post-it notes on the figures stating the word “¡Presente!” “In many places in South America and around the world, when something like this happens, names are called and often the response is ‘presente,’” Gordon said. “That these people are still with us if not physically, in our memory.” Gordon said that this incident should be taken as a learning experience and that it is a sign that Santa Clara is one of many institutions that have “serious problems” with issues of race. See VANDALISM, Page 3
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