The emotional vigil began at 7 P.M. outside of the U.S. Marine Corps Recruiting Center on Firestone, Thursday, July 02.
By: Clarissa Arceo
About 25 citizens of Downey held a small vigil for Specialist Vanessa Guillen, the 20-year-old U.S. Army soldier who went missing from the Fort Hood Army base in Texas where she was stationed. The participants stood outside of the Recruiting Center for about two hours holding signs, lighting candles, and talking about Vanessa’s case along with others that haven’t gone public.
The majority of the crowd were family members of veterans who came to show their support; “It could’ve been my brother/sister/son/daughter/cousin/etc” lingered through their conversations.
“To others, it’s just one person but to us, who have family members who are in the military, it’s a whole community,” says a resident from the crowd.
Four veterans- one who enlisted in the army right after graduating from Downey High in 2016- were seen in solidarity with the crowd, sharing their own stories and experiences with such cases during their time in the Army.
“It’s not even a thing that happened all of a sudden- these things have been happening. It’s only now that people are deciding to bring awareness to it- people in these situations are afraid because of the possibility of retaliation that they just keep quiet and that is why we don’t hear about this stuff so often, it makes me so angry,” shares one of the veterans.
Marissa Gurrola, a Junior at Downey High School, says that in order to help these cases and further prevent them from happening, the way we raise our children needs to change.
She shares her ideology on such a matter with her younger sister who stood alongside her at the vigil; “We shouldn’t have to be afraid for someone’s safety because of someone else. Instead of telling them to be careful, tell them to be strong. One day she’s going to tell someone else to be strong and it’s not just a small thing. It really changes someone“.
“When you’re not told to be strong people shy away from things, they’re too afraid to be themselves or speak out when something is wrong. It’s so important to teach someone the right from wrong at that young age otherwise they grow up to live in fear or turn out as these horrible people you see on TV who do all these bad things- it really depends- but it’s so important to do it right“, Gurrola concluded.
