Oak Park residents recited poems, sang protest anthems, and lit candles Friday night in honor of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Joan Sebastian Gurerro, residents of Texas and Maine who were shot and killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers earlier this month.
“I know the community here [in Oak Park] is very active and very conscious about what is happening to our immigrant brothers and sisters,” said Maureen Meshenberg, who described herself as a “concerned neighbor” who helped organize the vigil at Scoville Park, Lake Street at Oak Park Avenue. “I knew the people would come.
Meshenberg said the vigil was part of a nationwide movement supported by the Disappeared in America campaign, which coordinates nonviolent action in support of immigrants’ rights. The vigil included a poetry reading from Meshenberg, performances from Oak Park’s chapter of the national protest group Singing Resistance, speeches from various community leaders, and a moment of silence.
Elizabeth, a member of the Singing Resistance who chose not to provide her last name for reasons of safety, told Wednesday Journal there was a “unifying effect to everybody singing the same song at the same time.” Elizabeth and the other Singing Resistance members present at the vigil led attendees through call-and-response protest anthems, such as one involving the repetition of the phrase “you cannot erase them.”…