From Parkland to Philadelphia: Venezuelans demand an end to gun violence in U.S.

At the Cherry Street Pier, Manuel Oliver stood on a wooden stage in front of an audience of about 50 people Thursday evening. He was visiting from Parkland, Fla., for the first time in nearly 10 years, to deliver a message sent by his son Joaquín. Captivated by the story he had to share, the audience was absolutely silent while the Venezuelan artist painted graffiti on plywood.

A decade ago, Oliver and his son made a visit to Philadelphia to attend a Phillies game and get to know the city. On an LED screen hanging from the ceiling, Oliver played a handheld video recording of himself and Joaquín racing up the Rocky Steps at the Art Museum during their visit. It was the last time Joaquín ever toured the city. In 2018, Joaquín was one of the 17 children murdered on Valentine’s Day at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland.

Using red, yellow, and blue colors in the background, Oliver glued an image of his son Joaquín, dressed in Rocky Balboa’s iconic boxing gloves and briefs, on the plywood while Survivor’s ”Eye of the Tiger” played.

“We didn’t start this fight. We are just fighting back,” Oliver said after removing a paper mask with Joaquín’s face on it that he had been wearing.

Oliver and his wife,Patricia, are Joaquín’s parents and the founders of Change The Ref, a civic engagement organization dedicated to activism that demands that lawmakers address gun violence, and promotes the healing of lifelong grief experienced by the families of mass shooting victims. The Olivers were invited to town for the ”Culture love not violence” event organized by Casa de Venezuela and Fleisher Art Memorial, in partnership with CeaseFirePA, as one of a weeklong series of events commemorating Venezuelan heritage in the region.

Emilio Buitrago, a representative of Casa de Venezuela, said the purpose of centering on gun violence was to make Latinos more aware about differences in gun culture in Latin America and in the United States.

People from Latin American have experienced gun violence in criminal activities or when fighting against a dictatorship. But here we see a social gun violence.

“People from Latin America have experienced gun violence in criminal activities or when fighting against a dictatorship,” he said. “But here we see a social gun violence, where people carry guns to protect themselves from their neighbors, and we wanted to bring their attention to that.”

The event, which was supported by the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, brought Change the Ref’s nationwide art project ”Walls of Demand” to Philadelphia, a city where gun violence impacts the lives of Black and Latino men disproportionately.

According to a report from Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions that analyzed data recorded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, overall firearm-related deaths increased by 15% in 2020 to 45,222, the highest number ever recorded by the CDC since it began tracking firearm deaths in 1968. According to 2021 data from the Office of the City Controller, gun violence took the lives of 562 people in Philadelphia last year, a 13% increase in firearm-related homicides compared with 2020.

At the event, Positive Movement kicked off the evening with a drum-line performance. The majority of attendees were Venezuelan immigrants from the region. Belmary Lorca, from West Chester, said she had mixed feelings during the event.

“We come here to escape violence [in Venezuela], seeking a better future for our families,” she said, “but when you see that this is our reality here, you ask yourself if you made a right decision coming here.”

Murals created for ”Walls of Demand” are located in more than 50 cities around the country, including one on the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico border that reads: “On the other side, they also kill our sons.”

When asked about their achievements, Oliver said they have produced successful awareness campaigns, fueling a more vocal movement around gun violence, mostly driven by younger adults. He added that his organization plans to follow the death of every Latino with dual-citizenship who has been murdered by gun violence in the United States, and hold politicians accountable here and in Latin America.

We don’t deserve the gun violence that is inflicted on us.

Oliver said he is concerned that Latino communities, Venezuelans included, forget to demand resources and solutions to the issues that most affect them as citizens who pay taxes and vote in the United States. He said the Latino sentiment for the country needs to shift from being thankful to being demanding.

“It’s a mistake to stay silent and accept that this is our reality here just because we compare it to what we had in [our] homeland,” he said. “We don’t deserve the gun violence that is inflicted on us. So we can’t just wear an orange T-shirt once a year. No. We have to speak up, candidly, and make very informed decisions when we vote.”