Students break down wall as sign of post-election unity

On Thursday, the UF Hispanic Student Association and Hispanic-Latino Affairs broke down a wall.

The organizations created the wall, made of cinder blocks, for a unity demonstration behind the Hub. Throughout the day, students wrote words and phrases they considered harsh or cruel, with the intent to tear them down. The demonstration was in response to the presidential election results, said Edward Zambrano, the HSA treasurer.

“Usually something like this would take longer to plan, but this seemed pressing,” he said.

Zambrano, 20, said he knew it was something that could help students cope with the results.

“Students don’t think one candidate over the other is the answer,” the UF political science junior said. “It’s going to take a lot of unification and love to bring us together.”

Block by block, people painted words on the wall. “Rapists,” someone wrote. “Bigotry.” “Hypocrisy.” “Fear.”

Zambrano, who wrote “anchor baby,” said as a first-generation college student with parents who immigrated from Ecuador, it’s a phrase he’s become familiar with.

The phrase carries a negative connotation by labeling children who were born in the U.S. to noncitizens. But he is not a burden to the country, he said. He is an asset.

The words and phrases on the blocks represented students’ daily struggles, he said, but tearing down the wall symbolized what they can achieve together.

“The wall was a message that we don’t want to build walls,” Zambrano said. “We want to break them down and bring people together.”

Mariana Castro, the president of UF Chispas, said members of the organization have been victims of racial intolerance following the election.

“It has damaged some of us to such an emotional point that some of us could not go to class yesterday,” the 22-year-old UF neurobiology and Latin American studies junior said.

It was OK to feel sad or hurt, she told the crowd. People who cannot sympathize for those who are afraid are privileged, she said.

“It’s OK to feel fear, because at the end of the day, that’s what has won,” she said.

Before the wall was knocked down, Jose Abastida, 25, told the crowd that as an undocumented student, he has seen injustice and inequality in the U.S.

Despite Islamophobia and racism existing in American society, the UF political science senior said students should not be afraid to be on campus. They need to stand together.

“I’m more pumped than ever to help fight the fight,” he said. “In unity, there is strength.”

The UF Hispanic Student Association and Hispanic-Latino Affairs break down a wall made of cinder blocks for a unity demonstration behind the Hub on Thursday afternoon. Throughout the day, the organizations invited students to write words and phrases they found harsh and cruel, with the intent to tear them down.