'Month of Unity' aims to help El Pasoans heal from 2019 Walmart mass shooting

Helping El Pasoans to continue to heal from the Aug. 3, 2019, Walmart mass shooting is the goal of a month of events and reflection coordinated by El Paso County and the United Way of El Paso County.

The Month of Unity and Healing beginning Saturday, July 3, is “to help light a path toward goodwill as we approach the second anniversary of the tragedy that befell our community,” El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego said at a Friday news conference announcing the initiative.

“Only in unity can we bring out the best in humanity and overcome the hatred in our society that led to this horrible act,” he said.

For subscribers: After El Paso Walmart shooting, debate over domestic terrorism law rages on. Here's why.

The series of events, conversations, and activities will culminate with the Aug. 3 unveiling of the county’s Healing Garden in Ascarate Park in the Lower Valley.

"Events will include activities such as healing and unity through education, physical activity, art, music, public service, acts of kindness, and other creative programs," Samaniego said.

A list of the month's events can be found at elpasounitedfrc.org/loveforelpaso, officials said.

An important part of the month will be reflection and meditation, and the Healing Garden will play an important role in that, Samaniego said. Acts of kindness also will be a key part of the month, he said.

Taking part in the events in late July and early August will be Virginia artist and muralist Ellen Elmes, who painted portraits of the 23 slain shooting victims. She was inspired to do the paintings after reading an essay about the shooting victims, “Saying the Mexican Names,” by Harvard professor David Carrasco, whose family lives in El Paso.

Inside the El Paso shooting: A store manager, a frantic father, grateful survivors

The portraits of the shooting victims were given to their family members as Christmas presents last year, Carrasco noted. He took part in the news conference via video livestream.

Carrasco, professor of Latin American studies at the Harvard Divinity School, also will come to El Paso in July with other Harvard staff and students to help tell the El Paso story, he said.

“On the first anniversary (of the shooting), I was concerned El Paso’s significance and suffering symbolized in that attack was downplayed in the national discourse about gun violence, racism, and also the cultural creativity of people in the Mexican American borderlands," he said.

Since then, Carrasco said he helped form “a growing national group of educators and several filmmakers to spread the good news of this healing garden, of this healing initiative.”

“The healing garden is about curing, not just remembering. It’s about restoration, it’s about hope of transformation, coming out of this,” Carrasco said. "It's also saying to the people who have tried to put a boot in the face of Mexicans and Mexican Americans in recent years — that we will not imitate your cruelty with ours."

El Paso County District Attorney Yvonne Rosales said at the news conference that it will take years for residents to heal from the shooting’s effects. 

"So, as we always approach Aug. 3, we will always need to be there for each other and support each other and offer those random acts of kindness. If it's a kind word, or asking someone to go have a cup of coffee, just to ask how you are doing. Those simple words can have a huge impact."

Vic Kolenc may be reached at 546-6421; vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; @vickolenc on Twitter.