SAN ANTONIO — The Cesar Chavez March is back in San Antonio and no one was more excited than Lourdes Galvan, one of the original organizers of the annual event.
“Today we continue la causa, la causa sigue (the cause continues), and we aim to make changes and we are here to promote justice for all and we are to promote peace,” Galvan said.
The march started on San Antonio's West Side, in an area that’s over 90% Latino and often plagued by poverty. Galvan has fought for this barrio since she was 19.
“We want to make sure that the younger children, kids, educate themselves on how important it is to take control of your neighborhoods,” Galvan said.
That’s the thing about this march — folks don’t have to be Chicano or Chicana to participate in it. They also don’t have to be from this barrio to address issues that affect their community.
However, for others at the recent march, the issues can mean the difference between life and death.
“Free Melissa Lucio. Free Melissa Lucio,” a group of people chanted.
These chants were for Melissa Lucio, the only Latina to be put on death row in Texas. Her son John Vincent Lucio is not giving up.
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“Trying to get my mother home, get her off of death row, especially for April 27. We are trying to beat that day,” John Vincent Lucio said while marching. “My mother is an innocent mother. We are trying to get her the freedom that she deserves.”
Melissa Lucio is set to be executed on April 27, so the family feels they don’t have a lot of time. John Vincent Lucio, his friends and family came up from the Rio Grande Valley to participate in this Cesar Chavez March.
“What do we want? Free Melissa Lucio. When do we want it? Now,” the chants reverberated through downtown San Antonio.
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John Vincent Lucio says the support from San Antonio and folks all over Texas is felt by him and his mother.
“It makes my mother feel really good. So when she feels good, I feel good. If she hurts, I hurt, so it feels amazing, very amazing,” John Vincent Lucio said.