✍️ 📸: Ben Olivo | @rbolivo | Heron editor
A few hundred mourners gathered in front of San Fernando Cathedral at Main Plaza early Wednesday evening for a vigil for the 19 children and two teachers killed on Tuesday inside Robb Elementary in Uvalde. They joined local politicians and spiritual leaders for 21 minutes of silence in honor of the victims. Afterward, anyone was given the opportunity to speak their mind about the shooting, gun violence in America, anything.
“I’m 72 years old and I’m tired of marching and marching and marching, year after year after year, and nothing changes,” said Teresa Gutierrez, one of the vigil’s organizers. “It’s time to change.”
Roxann and Phillip Peña and their two children, Josiah Rodriguez and Amisty Peña, embraced each other during the minutes of silence while wearing crimson shirts that read “Pray For Uvalde.”
“I don’t have family out there … it’s just being a mother of four,” said Roxann Peña. “It’s not something that you ever want to happen in your life.”
Peña made the shirts in solidarity with the small city 80 miles west of San Antonio.
A small memorial was made in front of the church, which included the names of the school children: Uziyah Garcia, Amerie Garza, Xavier Lopez, Tess Mata, Ellie Garcia, Rojelio Torres, Jose Flores, Jailah Silguero, Jayce Luevanos, Nevaeh Bravo, Jackie Cazares, Annabelle Rodriguez, Eliahna Torres, Makenna Lee Elrod, Lexi Rubio; and teachers Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia.
Heron Editor Ben Olivo has been writing about downtown San Antonio since 2008, first for mySA.com, then for the San Antonio Express-News. He co-founded the Heron in 2018, and can be reached at 210-421-3932 | ben@saheron.com | @rbolivo on Twitter
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