A group of St. Thomas students in a Latin culture and civilization class are working to raise awareness about 43 Mexican college students who are missing and presumed dead in Mexico.
The students created a Facebook page on Nov. 18 called “UST for Mexico’s 43” after the kidnapping. It is intended to show solidarity for the 43 students, all of whom were training to be teachers and were last seen in the custody of the police. The students were on their way to protest hiring practices by the Mexican government when police stopped them. Details about the clash remain unclear.
Prosecutors say there is evidence the police handed the students over to cartel members who then executed them and disposed of their bodies. One of the page’s creators, senior Cecelia Porter, said it is important for St. Thomas students to be informed.
“A lot of issues in Latin America get kind of glossed over,” Porter said. “We tend to focus a lot more on issues that have an economic impact or have a threat to the public, like Ebola. I think it’s important to bring this stuff to people’s attention because it’s happening right across the border.”
Porter worked with classmates to create the page and plan to raise awareness on campus. Porter’s Spanish professor, Paola Ehrmantraut, said she introduces current topics to the class for discussion, but the students are the ones who took the initiative.
“The students felt very strongly about it,” Ehrmantraut said. “They wanted to show solidarity, and we thought about doing something, and that was the first thing. They wanted to tell their peers about it. They thought not enough people in our St. Thomas community knew about it, and they needed to know.”
The page currently has 347 likes and continues to grow. Porter said students care about the issue, but many don’t know about it.
“A lot of my friends didn’t know until I invited them, and they were like, what are you talking about? The fact that it’s students makes it a lot more relatable,” Porter said. “Imagine if 43 of your friends just disappeared and you didn’t know where they went.”
While Porter’s class is targeting the St. Thomas student community, the page is expanding beyond those limits.
“People do care,” Porter said. “It keeps going. I keep seeing more people liking it. Even professors. What I like about this is it’s expanding beyond the student population too.”
Sophomore Haley Sklenar said students here are connected to the missing students, even across borders.
“It’s a whole bunch of college students,” Sklenar said. “They were making a stance. They were trying to make themselves heard, and I think St. Thomas does that a lot and has a very strong voice and opinion, and people do hear us.”
Some students might not be aware of this issue because of news patterns, according to sophomore Stephanie Peters.
“You hear horrible things on the news all the time,” Peters said. “The news is pretty much a horror story now. It’s just one bad thing after another. It’s just another bad thing in the back of your head.”
Peters also said the creation of this group shows St. Thomas cares. Porter acknowledged simply being informed makes an impact on the people in the situation.
“Seriously, read the news about it,” Porter said. “That was my first step. Then when you have all of this buzz everywhere saying ‘No, we support you. We think this is wrong,’ then I think that’s actually really important, even if it doesn’t directly do anything.”
As the semester comes to an end, Porter and her classmates plan to continue raising awareness and showing support, something Ehrmantraut said is inspiring.
“We have to care because it’s our mission to care,” Ehrmantraut said. “St. Thomas is an institution that cares. There is always a group that will care very much, and I think that’s the case with St. Thomas. It touches very much what we’re doing – teaching and learning. It has very much struck a chord with St. Thomas. Class is coming to an end, but maybe our protest efforts will not. It goes beyond the classroom.”
Simeon Lancaster can be reached at lanc4637@stthomas.edu.