EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A national Latino civil rights group is holding a forum to remember the victims of the Aug. 3, 2019, mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart and stop the racially tinged social media posts that inspire acts of hate.
“A Brighter Tomorrow” will be the theme of the 1 p.m. gathering sponsored by the League of United Latin American Citizens next Monday at the Region 19 Education Service Center on 6611 Boeing Drive in El Paso. The forum will be aired live on LULAC’s Facebook page.
LULAC National President Domingo Garcia will lead the discussion with local guests and invited Mexican dignitaries representing the eight citizens of Mexico who died in the massacre – which claimed 23 lives and left 23 others injured.
Garcia was in El Paso a couple of days after a massacre allegedly inspired by social media rants against illegal immigration that motivated a North Texas resident to drive to El Paso and, according to an online manifesto that authorities linked to him, stop the “Hispanic invasion of Texas.”
LULAC held a similar forum on the first anniversary of the massacre.
“These people preaching the hate, these people trying to divide us as Americans and as communities … we need to push back, to stand up and say that unity of all Americans will win out over those who seek to divide us,” Garcia said at that forum.
Garcia said social media platforms and their parent companies need to continue to be held accountable for flagging down messages of hate that may inspire further tragedies.
Other remembrance events include the opening of El Paso County’s Healing Garden next Tuesday at Ascarate Park, 6900 Delta Drive.