The new installation outside of Clare Small Arts and Sciences (Robert Tann/CU Independent)
On Friday, Sept. 6, UMAS y MEXA de CU Boulder will dedicate a new sculpture on campus honoring the lives of six Chicano student activists and University of Colorado Boulder alumni who died in car bombings in 1974.
On May 27, CU Law graduate Reyes Martinez, CU Boulder junior Neva Romero and CU Boulder graduate Una Jaakola were killed in a bombed car at Chautauqua Park. Two days later, former CU students Florencio Granado and Heriberto Teran, along with pre-med student Francisco Dougherty, were killed in a second car bomb near the Burger King on 28th Street.
Federal Bureau of Investigations files on the case were lost, and no one was ever charged for the deaths.
UMAS y MEXA is a coalition organization formed in 1992 between the United Mexican American Students and Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlán. While the two groups maintain separate identities and constitutions, they work together to bring awareness on the CU Boulder campus to cultural social, political, and educational issues that affect Chicanas/os. The group hopes the new installation will bring awareness to this chapter in CU’s history.
The dedication will begin at 2 p.m. at the sculpture, located west of the Recreation Center outside Clare Small Arts and Sciences, for a performance from Lenny Foster, Grupo Azteca Tlahuitzcalli and the Denver Singers. At 3 p.m., students and community members will march from the sculpture to the Visual Arts Complex for refreshments and view a related exhibit. At 5:00 p.m., the film based on the students’ deaths, “Symbols of Resistance,” will be shown in the Center for Academic Success and Engagement (CASE) Auditorium.
More information can be found here.
