The Mothers of Uvalde

Uvalde, Texas sits at a literal crossroads. U. S. highways 83, from Canada to Mexico, and 90 from Florida to California cross right through the middle of town. But the city is at a different crossroads, too; an emotional one. It's at the intersection of fear, cultural division and grief - all of which were amplified by the horror that took place on May 24th, 2022. A gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School, killing 19 children and two teachers. Police stood for over an hour in a hallway outside the classroom while the shooting was in progress. Over the last year, much has been revealed about the inaction that day. We recently learned the Uvalde County Sheriff’s office didn't have an active shooter policy in place, and a senior law enforcement official on the scene didn't complete an active shooter training course. But, we also learned about the brave citizens who stepped up that day and who have continued to work for systemic changes that will improve the lives of Uvalde citizens and, hopefully, prevent another tragedy. Angela Villescaz, founder of the Fierce Madres, tells her story to Yulin Cruz.

Transcript:

On May 24th, 2022, there was yet another mass shooting in the United States. 

We are following the breaking news out of Texas and it is heartbreaking news. 

This one at an elementary school in Texas, in a town called Uvalde, just west of San Antonio. 

Tonight inside the unspeakable horror. Officers running to the scene with the 18 year old gunman already inside Rob Elementary where second, third, and fourth graders were in the middle of their day. Authorities say he got in through a back door, slipping into a classroom and opening fire on fourth graders and their two teachers. 

The gunman killed 19 children and two teachers, while police stood for over an hour in a hallway outside the classroom they were in. In the wake of the tragedy, devastated parents and residents sought answers from the local school board.

And I can't help but wonder if they just didn't find our children worthy of being saved.

The town's collective grief soon turned into collective action. 

More calls for action in Uvalde today. The families of the children who were killed and local teachers lined the city plaza calling for change. Organizations, We Are Your voice, Esse, and Fierce Madres are pledging to rally every weekend.

The group Fierce Madres has been especially vocal since the shooting in Uvalde. Its members are proud, passionate women; mothers, and grandmothers who are determined to hold those in power accountable, and make their schools and communities a safer place. 

I've always been fearless. The founder of Fierce Madres is Angela Villescaz.

She attended Robb Elementary as a child and lived in Uvalde most of her life. She is known to many in the community just as Tia Angie.

I believe that something good can come out of all of this. 

I'm Yulin Cruz. In this episode of Sheroics we are going to talk with Angela Villescaz and hear more about Fierce Madres and what it takes to turn an unspeakable tragedy into a force for change in the world.

The day after the shooting in Uvlade, Texas Governor Abbott held a press conference. It had been just four years since another school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas had killed eight students and two teachers.

As horrible as what happened, it could have been worse. The reason it was not worse is because law enforcement officials did what they do.

So it all started at the press conference where I'm the woman in the black hat standing behind Beto O'Rourke. 

Beto O'Rourke, a democrat, was running against Abbott in the Texas Governor's race, and he was not happy with the official response to Uvalde.

Governor Abbott. I have to say something. The time, the time for you to have stopped this was was after Santa Fe.

Sit Down!

After that press conference, I went to the Uvalede Memorial Hospital to see if there was any families there that, that I could help or meet with.

But no one there survived.

Angela returned to her car in the hospital parking lot. 

And I was sitting in my vehicle with the window rolled down and gentleman came up to me and said he felt bad that he was with the press, but that they didn't make it in time to the press conference.

He said, would it be okay, we're from Austin, Texas and can we do an interview? And so I said, sure. And the lady came out from behind the vehicle and she seemed a little hesitant to do it in public. She wanted to go to the side of the hospital wall to get a little privacy. And I agreed. And so during the interview, I said something like, Hispanic moms, you may not know much about our culture, but one thing about us, even though we're quiet and we've been ignored and neglected, but one thing about us is you do not mess with our kids.

And so I said, we're gonna do something about this, I promise you. And the reporter just started bawling. She was just crying. So she made a TikTok the following day on her personal account. And so she contacted me the day after that and she said, I'm so sorry, I should have probably asked your permission, but I made a TikTok and it went viral and I used the clip that you spoke about Hispanic moms, and now there's thousands of women asking who you are.

And she's like, do you mind if I tell them? And I said, sure. And so, these women, they were hashtagging Hispanic Moms United. And so they were saying things like, who's this woman? You know, I wanna be a part of anything she creates. And, we just, I wanna be a part of her movement. And so I really felt like I had to now live up to that because I had said we were gonna do something about it.

Now I had to keep that promise. And that's how I came up with the name Fierce Madres. 

So did, did you come up with the idea of fierce madres because, you know, now I am committed. Right? As often happens, I, I speak up, I stand up because, you know, it's the internal act of saying I have to do something and then I verbalize that by speaking up and now I really have to do something. 

Now the time for action, I think you call it, action without fear, actions without fear. 

Yeah. Taking action, but fearlessly. I've always, my whole life been a Mexican-American activist wanting equality, wanting, I've been recruiting candidates across Texas for a while, so I already knew the conditions we were in in Uvalde with that type of demographic.

So that's not new for me. That's new for these parents, but not, not for me. I dunno how to best explain, I've always been fearless. 

Angela is not only fearless, as a political organizer and someone who works with survivors of abuse and trauma, she was made for this moment. 

My background is I've spent over 20 years working with survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking, so it's just real natural for me to always want to be there for women who are survivors.

In the days after the shooting, Angela met another fierce madre, a local farm worker named Angeli Gomez.

I got a call from a friend of hers. I was leaving outta town from Uvalde. It was 10 at night and she calls and says she was, she been friends with Angeli for 10 years, would I like to come by. So I turn my car around and went back and went to her house and met with her.

Angeli Gomez was the Uvalde mother who jumped the fence at Robb Elementary School in order to save the lives of her two kids. 

So we are hearing this morning from a mother who ran inside the school in Uvalde Texas to protect her kids. She says that police held her back and handcuffed her, as the shooting unfolded. 

Some of the police officers on the local force had known her and were friends with her. They had put her in handcuffs outside of Robb Elementary originally. One of her friends from the police force said, Hey, can you take those off of her? You know, she doesn't need to have that on her. She's going through a custody issue with her boys and stuff. So can you take that off? And he did.

And as soon as he took them off, she says she like kind ducked under his arm and took off. 

As soon as they uncuffed me, I jumped that first gate fence and once I jumped it, I went to my son's class. 

Gomez showed the same tenacity when it came to helping Angela organize the Fierce Madres group. 

She's got a lot of leadership qualities and she's real inclusive.

She's just a, a very outgoing leader. So early on, we formed a bond. You know, and the Washington Post picked up on that. They would kind of watch us make protest signs and they would come over to her house and sit in the living room with us. So that's how we started out. 

Slowly, the Fierce Madres and the other Uvalde parents found their voices. 

Mainly in the early stages, it was about, I would say, three pretty vocal parents and those individuals, I would admire them. Early on they were just so demanding answers. Demanding answers, and loud. 

You have no idea how frustrating this is. No idea. And we're sitting here just listening to empty, empty words. That's all it is. Empty words. 

A movement had started and thousands wanted to join in. And sometimes things got a bit crazy, with so many voices wanting to contribute and be heard. 

We were just getting loud too. At the school board meetings, towards the end some people joined, uh, got t-shirts that I didn't give 'em, and they were like super loud from San Antonio.

They'd come from outta town. And it kind of scared the locals here and I'm like, wait a minute, I didn't vet you. You're not really in leadership of Fierce Madres. So a lot of co-opting was taking place as well. Lot of weird situations were popping up. 

Well, you know, when passion takes over. When people are passionate about things, they may do things that they think are helping, but they're really not helping.

There are people that are not in agreement with the cause and that are there to be instigators of division. 

And sabotage the good work you're trying to do.

The first main objective for the Fierce Madres was to hold local officials accountable. They demanded that Uvalde School Police Chief Pete Arredondo be fired. 

So I started a Fierce Madres Political Action Committee. So, the first three months we focused on Pete Arredondo right? Accomplished. 

But we are gonna begin with breaking news out of Uvalde, Texas.

The city's Police Chief for Schools, Pete Arredondo has been fired for his actions or inactions during the Robb Elementary School massacre back in May. The decision to fire Arredondo came during an emotional school board meeting that included comments from parents of some of those children. 

The Fierce Madres didn't stop there. They started advocating for gun reforms, like raising the minimum age to buy an assault style rifle in Texas from 18 to 21. And when the National Rifle Association dared to plan a fundraiser in nearby Hondo, they took action there too. 

The Hondo City Council votes to revoke an agreement which would've allowed the Friends of the NRA to hold a fundraiser at a city owned facility.

The actions of the Fierce Madres met with some early success, but they also met with some fierce blowback. From her very first TV interview, Angeli Gomez came under fire. 

There's wives and mothers of police officers here that felt she, that her testimony embarrassed them, like we didn't even know how bad it really was.

That was early on. And just the fact that she gave that interview, it, it brought a lot of attention and harassment. I witnessed the harassment and it hasn't ended, it hasn't stopped. 

The resistance to change in Uvalde arises from a broader culture of fear that dominates in a community often divided. 

The officer who first saw the shooter outside the school could've taken the shot.

But didn't because he felt, he felt that he had to call his supervisor for permission. And that's the kinda fear that the individuals here live under. The community is over 80%, uh, Hispanic, like 84%, but the four men that run it are Anglo. So our county judge is white. Our, our mayor's white, our superintendent is white and our state representative. And so

they call all the shots. And so the culture here is, is this fear of if I shoot this guy I could get fired or worse, you know? And so even yesterday Beto O'Rourke was in town and this lady was standing next to me and wanting a picture with him and she was terrified. And I said, just go stand next to him. Hand me your phone, I'll take a picture for you.

She goes, no, those big cameras that are the media, I won't do it unless they turn their angle away because, and she told Beto, she said, I wanna picture so bad cause my 70 something year old sister prays for you every day. And, and um, it was such an emotional moment, she said, but if that camera captures me, my boss will fire me.

And I've worked there for 38 years and I can't lose my job at 38 years. So she was terrified to do a photo, just to do a photo. And so that's the way it is here. Everyone, the teachers are scared to tell you how they really feel. The cops are scared. There's not many job opportunities here. So if you have a job in one of those fields, either the school, the hospital, or law enforcement, you know, you don't wanna lose your job. 

It takes a lot of courage to speak up in Uvalde, especially to ask the tough questions that many don't want asked. 

I think anytime we hear there's a school shooting or, or a mass shooting, I think the first question on everyone's mind is, what color was he?

You know, was he black? Was he white? Was he Hispanic? What they thought when they, when they found out that the guy's last name is Ramos, it was like, oh, it couldn't have been racial. He went to a Hispanic school and he did the shooting and he's Hispanic, so it wasn't a white kid or a black kid, but they don't, they don't understand behind that scene how much racism played a part.

The systemic racism in Uvalde, you know, through neglective resources.

That lack of resources can have devastating consequences and may have played a direct role in the shooting. 

The 18 year old shooter, no one really wants to talk about it in the families. I try to be respectful. They don't want his name said, they don't want to have any fame after what he did, the shooter.

But I really do believe we need to take a hard look at how he fell through the cracks. How he missed a hundred days of school and they kick him outta school. I, I don't think that's the way you're supposed to handle it. According to federal law, state law, and the resources that were supposed to be spent on, on things like, you know, the depression, that covid led to because of isolation and stuff. Many people dropped the ball. And so you have the town divided.

You have people saying, why are y'all doing this? The only person to blame is the shooter. Ok. Well, let's take a look at how we treated the shooter. You know, there's so much and, and you, you don't offend other side by looking like you're overly compassionate about somebody who's got that mental state.

So it's really tough. 

Nobody ever wants to talk about the shooter, and I can understand why. But the point is that these tragedies will continue if we don't in tandem have sensible gun control laws, but also have the ability in our schools to be able to sift through those that need additional help.

Angela Villescaz was active in the Democratic party for a long time, but politics as usual no longer seems enough. 

So I had a background in politics, but when May 24th happened, I completely got a whole different lens in life and the rest of my years on the earth I wanna spend protecting children. So I have no interest.

You know, I said I'm done. I called up my state party and said I wanna dissolve any of the chapter that I have built and created, and I want nothing to, I'm not going to the state convention. I want nothing. I'm all for Uvalde. That's it.

Many of the other Fierce Madres are all for Uvalde, too. 

What makes a person go through a difficult situation like they have been through, turn that into a positive force for change? What made you say, I'm leaving everything behind, and I'm putting all my effort in changing Uvalde? 

Yeah. I think on the first question that may include even like parents who have gotten turned into activists or running for office, I think that it could possibly be part of it being therapeutic for them in, in, in handling their grief and, and in the healing process. Feeling like I gotta do something for my child. So they didn't die in vain. So I need to stay busy, busy, busy, active, active, active in order for my child's life to mean something. And for me, the hardest thing I've ever experienced. And I thought, what does it matter if the people in Uvalde, I just don't like, I don't like politics.

I don't like politicians on either side of the aisle because in this experience I learned that the Santa Fe shooting in Texas, those survivors contacted me. They did the same thing. They worked so hard and they finally got SB 11, a bill passed. And then guess what? It had no teeth. So they warned me. They're like, Angie, if you're gonna go down this road and you're gonna put everything into it, just know that even if you get the bills passed that you want, the school boards have sovereign immunity.

And so like the things that they're supposed to do, like making sure substitute teachers have keys issued to them so they can lock the doors and, and keep the kids safe, those kinda things. They're not doing it. So that's tough. But to me it's more like I, I truly believe I'm a woman of faith, I believe that something good can come outta all of this. I don't, I don't believe that we should just move on and not accept what is it that, what is it that God's trying to show us?

And it is that belief, that something good can come from all of this, that drives Angela still. 

My goal is to have the level of passion. And people describe me as very passionate, but to have what you guys had in Puerto Rico, oh my God. I'm like, why can't we be like that when Ricky Martin was on top of that truck with the flag and how y'all, I'm like, whoa.

I would love to be a part of something like that. What you, man. 

I think it's the same movement. And at Sheroics we often talk about the power of love, right? 

Right. 

Power of love for your community, the power of love for your country, the power of love for your children. Most of these women that you're dealing with, and these parents, cuz we, we cannot forget that they're, they're also males that are being very open about how they feel, probably never thought they would be in a position where their voice would resonate all over the United States and would become symbols, right? If you ask, if you ask Angeli, are you, are you a shero, she would probably say no, but when we saw her getting cuffed, getting uncuffed, running over that fence, taking her two children and, and, and, you know, uh, getting 'em to safety. Then we say, damn, you know? 

Yeah. 

That's some fearless behavior, which people do when love is bigger than anything else. When your goal is love, and especially I, I loved what you said: you may not know a lot about our culture, but you don't mess with our family. And you definitely do not mess with our children, right? 

That's right.

What is next for FIerce Madres?

We're gonna do a lot more work with our allies like Moms Demand Action, Every Town For Gun Safety. I'm interested to see what we can do in the state legislature. So I know we're gonna be pretty loud in that sense. We're gonna fight hard for that. Whatever our students, our children deserve in Texas, they're gonna get it and nobody better mess with that. That's where you're going to see a lot from Fierce Madres.

There is so much at stake here. Nobody wants another Uvalde or Santa Fe. 

We owe it. Every single one of us owes it to children. We, we, they're just children. They depend on us to protect them, and we need to protect them with our laws, with the norms of our society. We, we just can't keep living like this. We can't.

And thanks to brave women like Angela Villescaz and Angeli Gomez, we know that we have people on the front lines of this fight willing to take on those in power and do what is necessary to bring about change.

There's a saying that says, don't mess with Texas. This is: don't mess with the Madres. That's right. That's right. This time they messed with the wrong madres. They messed with the wrong mothers. They touched the wrong kids. So we'll bring that change.

The names of the 19 children and two teachers who perished in Uvlade should not be forgotten. Each one of them represents broken hearts and broken lives. They should have opened their eyes this morning. They were someone's daughter, son, brother. Somebody's sister, granddaughter, grandson, and so much more.

They are another painful reminder of the thousands of lives lost to gun violence every year.

Nevaeh Bravo, Jacklyn Cazares, Makenna Elrod, Jose Manuel Flores Jr., Eliahna Garcia, Irma Garcia, Uziyah Garcia, Amerie Jo Garza, Xavier Lopez, Jayce Luevanos, Tess Mata, Maranda Mathis, Eva Mireles, Alithia Ramirez, Annabell Rodriguez, Maite Rodriguez, Alexandria Rubio, Layla Salazar, Jailah Silguero, Eliahna Torres, Rojelio Torres. 

We find sheroes in every community, and I'm sure everyone listening knows one that they can talk about. Well, we want to hear from you. We want you to tell us about those sheroes that change your community every day. Maybe they're not on the six o'clock news, but they should be. Because they do extraordinary things.

So email us at sheroes at Ozy dot com with your story. Who knows? Maybe their sheroics will be featured on an upcoming episode. Sheroics is an Ozy production. I'm your host, Yulin Cruz. This episode was produced and engineered by Pamela Lorence and written by Sean Braswell. Make sure to follow Sheroics on Apple podcast and subscribe on Spotify, iHeartRadio, or wherever your get your podcasts.