A year in Uvalde
The United States experiences so many mass shootings that journalists usually don’t stick around long after the attacks. Reporters and photographers move on to other stories, while the families and friends of the victims continue to mourn.
A year ago today, a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Tamir Kalifa, an independent photojournalist from Austin, traveled to Uvalde shortly after shooting, but kept coming back. Tamir temporarily moved to Uvalde to live with the victims’ families and rented a 30 square meter shipping container that had been converted into a house.
We’re devoting today’s newsletter to some of the photos Tamir has taken over the past year and excerpts from his interviews with families.
“The grief cycles don’t match the media cycles,” Tamir told us. “We move on, but families don’t.”
Marking the holidays
Xavier “XJ” Lopez, 10, loved Christmas. He loved going to Uvalde’s annual extravaganza, an event with light shows, decorations and party music. So last Christmas – their first without XJ – his parents, Abel Lopez and Felicha Martinez, and his siblings went to honor him.
A children’s choir soundtrack played as they walked through the event. Then they heard a loud explosion that sounded like gunfire – an overloaded transformer had burst. Felicha had a panic attack and collapsed on the grass.
“These days should be happy,” she said later that evening. “But they are just memories that our lives are torn apart.”
Swimming
The weekend before 10-year-old Tess Mata died, she told her older sister Faith that she wanted to learn how to swim. Faith was about to start her senior year at Texas State University, where as a graduation tradition, students jump into a river on campus. Tess was eager to join her big sister.
On her graduation day this month, Faith walked to the river with her family. Then she jumped in, holding a photo of Tess. The photo was a sweet symbol, but also a painful memory.
“Tess looks just like Faith,” said Veronica Mata, their mother. “So the other day she came and she told me, she said, ‘I’m so sorry you have to look at me every day and think about Tess.'”
Visit their graves
The cemetery where most of the victims are buried has become an anchor in the lives of their families and friends. They have gathered for birthdays and holidays at the grave. They mow the grass, decorate the tombstones and lie on the lush grass that has sprung up.
Caitlyne Gonzales, 11, who lost many of her friends in the shooting, comes to the cemetery to visit them. On a recent night, she stopped by Jackie Cazares’ grave and played Taylor Swift music. She sang and danced and took selfies. For a moment it was as if they were all together again.
Protest and vigil
Many of the parents have found purpose in activism. Brett Cross, uncle of Uziyah Garcia, 10, who raised him as a son, spent 10 days camped outside the school district offices in protest, along with other family members and supporters. They demanded that school police officers be suspended for their role in the delayed response.
The protest ended when the district suspended school police operations and sent two officers on leave.
Relatives have also testified before legislators at both the state and federal levels and protested outside of Uvalde. Tamir said a photo of Jackie Cazares’ parents, Javier and Gloria, at an annual gun violence vigil in Washington, DC, surrounded by other gun violence survivors was one of the most powerful moments he witnessed.
“It’s important to see each of these family members as part of a nationwide network of people deeply involved in gun violence,” he said. “It’s one that grows every day.”
You can see more photos of Tamir here.
Tamir Kalifa contributed reporting and photography.
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