The struggle for justice: a tale of two cities
Emilia Stein
La autora es científica social.
«Me duele respirar»
Álvaro Conrado«I Can’t Breathe»
Eric Garner and George Floyd
Two years ago today, I sat at our home in Managua watching the massive Mother’s Day protest take place just a kilometer away from our house. This anti-government protest was organized in solidarity with Nicaraguan mothers who had lost their children in the deadly insurrection that rocked the country for the previous six weeks.
I remember watching the march glued to my TV and my social media. It all seemed to be going well until shots were fired near the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería. Ultimately, 19 people lost their lives that day, 218 were injured – children were separated from their parents as people fled the scene with ultimately 5,000 of the many thousands of people at the Managua protest taking refuge in the nearby Universidad Centroamericana.
The massacre has been credited to snipers from the National Police. Two years later, this afternoon, I sat in our new home in the United States watching the TV and monitoring social media, just waiting for the news to roll in about the massive protests rocking the US — a different call for justice, that yet feels so similar.
When the news came in, it sparked a feeling I hadn’t felt since Nicaragua in the months in 2018. While these movements are distinct, they are in some ways similar. The urgency to end silence and injustice. The same call that enough is enough — basta. And similar words uttered from the victims of the scourge of inequality, oppression, and violence that were then used as a rallying cry for change. «Me duele respirar» ~Alvaro Conrado «I can’t breathe» ~ Eric Garner and George Floyd and the feeling that in Nicaragua there was a before Mother’s Day 2018 and after Mother’s Day 2018, and here in the US, it feels like there will be a before May 2020 and after May 2020.
Apart from our sadness, grieving, and anger, it feels like a shift took place already.
