{"id":2647,"date":"2017-01-30T10:37:48","date_gmt":"2017-01-30T17:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pueblowarriors.org\/blog\/?p=2647"},"modified":"2017-02-08T10:47:14","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T17:47:14","slug":"warriors-join-with-2017-mlk-marchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pueblowarriors.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/warriors-join-with-2017-mlk-marchers\/","title":{"rendered":"Warriors Join With 2017 MLK Marchers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By Yamilex Garcia and Omar Quintana<\/p>\n

On Monday, Jan. 16, 2017, the Tucson Community joined hearts as they commemorated the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in a march that began at the University of Arizona Bio Tech Park (on Kino Parkway) and ending at Reid Park. Among the marchers included several Pueblo students and staff members.<\/p>\n

Despite temperatures in the very cool 40\u2019s and 50\u2019s and occasional rain, thousands of Tucsonans endured the\u00a0three miles of the march.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
Vanessa Mendez (Left) and Corina Ballesteros (Right) pose with a picture with Congressman Raul Grijalva.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One participant, Pueblo senior Corina Ballesteros, said that she has always been impassioned by King\u2019s life\u2014as well as his legacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cKing would have loved what we all did on the march,\u201d Ballesteros said. \u201cHis life still continues to resonate all of the original qualities that made him such an icon\u2014for all<\/strong> people. He will always symbolize unity and peace, and that is something that we should never lose sight of, especially in our splintered country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another Warrior student, senior Vanessa Mendez, said that this was her first time marching for anybody.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very surprised how many people were involved in this [MLK] march,\u201d Mendez said. \u201cI felt empowered marching because of the vibrant environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

She paused and said, \u201cThere are still people out there who believe that King does not merit a holiday,\u201d Mendez said. \u201cI recently learned that Arizona was the last state to approve the King holiday back in the 1980s. However, King definitely deserves to be recognized. Next year, this event will be especially moving because it will mark the 50th<\/sup>\u00a0Anniversary of King\u2019s death. I am already committed to marching\u2014and bringing along a lot of my friends with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not all was docile during the march. Many of the participants voiced their concerns regarding several issues including: police brutality; the \u201cJobs for Justice\u201d movement; and racial profiling. Many of the marchers also protested against President-elect Trump, five days prior to his inauguration.<\/p>\n

Food was available at the end of the march, and the marchers enjoyed the live jazz musicians.<\/p>\n

The sun broke away from the clouds\u2026<\/p>\n

Ballesteros said, \u201cPresident Obama\u2019s farewell speech was playing at the park. I think that a lot of us were already missing Obama\u2014even though he was still officially the president when the march occurred\u2014especially considering what president we\u2019ll have next\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Mendez said, \u201cThrough this march, I learned that I have a civic duty to perform\u2014as an American. I believe in the democratic process, and I wholeheartedly believe in the First Amendment, which is my right to express my voice, peaceably.\u201d She paused and said, \u201cI think King would be proud of all of us today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both students were photographed with Congressman Raul Grijalva at the end of the march, at Reid Park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0 By Yamilex Garcia and Omar Quintana On Monday, Jan. 16, 2017, the Tucson Community joined hearts as they commemorated the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in a march that began at the University of Arizona Bio Tech Park (on Kino Parkway) and ending at Reid Park. Among the marchers included several Pueblo … Continue reading Warriors Join With 2017 MLK Marchers<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[135,250],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pA2u4-GH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pueblowarriors.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2647"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pueblowarriors.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pueblowarriors.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pueblowarriors.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pueblowarriors.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pueblowarriors.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2649,"href":"https:\/\/pueblowarriors.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2647\/revisions\/2649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pueblowarriors.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pueblowarriors.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pueblowarriors.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}