Kimberly Mata Rubio meets Uvalde residents throughout her Oct. 21 rally.
Brenda Bazan for NPR
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Brenda Bazan for NPR
Kimberly Mata Rubio meets Uvalde residents throughout her Oct. 21 rally.
Brenda Bazan for NPR
On a heat Saturday afternoon in Uvalde, Texas, Kimberly Mata Rubio was going door-to-door on Backyard Road — knocking on doorways and speaking to voters.
She wears a medal round her neck from a race she ran earlier that morning to honor her daughter Lexi – the day earlier than was her twelfth birthday.
Lexi was amongst 19 college students and lecturers killed in a mass capturing at her college in Could 2022. Within the months that adopted, Mata Rubio and her husband, Felix, traveled the nation demanding stricter gun management legal guidelines. Mata Rubio says her job now’s to honor Lexi’s life with work.
“I do know she would have made a distinction on this world if she had the chance. So I need to try this for her,” she informed NPR.
Mata Rubio hopes to make that distinction by operating for mayor of Uvalde in a particular election on Tuesday. Nevertheless, because it goes on the marketing campaign path, some residents view it as a painful reminder of the tragedy they’re attempting to beat.
“I’ve compassion”
For Mata Rubio, turning grief into motion is not nearly her household. She says everybody misplaced one thing that day in Could.
“My neighborhood is struggling too,” she mentioned. “We have misplaced our sense of safety. We have misplaced 21 Uvalde residents. And I need to be a part of the change that my neighborhood sees.”
Mata Rubio places up marketing campaign indicators.
Brenda Bazan for NPR
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Mata Rubio places up marketing campaign indicators.
Brenda Bazan for NPR
Not everybody desires this sort of change. Talking to residents of the city of 15,000 reveals a divided neighborhood and conflicting concepts about the best way to transfer ahead. Some want to not have everlasting reminders within the metropolis, such because the 21 white crosses lining the sq.’s fountain.
Greater than 5 months after the bloodbath, Uvalde County voted to re-elect Republican Gov. Greg Abbott despite the fact that his opponent, Beto O’Rourke, campaigned for harder gun enforcement. Solely 45% of eligible voters in Uvalde County solid ballots in that election, in keeping with the Texas Secretary of State’s Workplace.
The tragedy hasn’t made a lot of a distinction with new voters both — fewer than 200 new voters have registered within the county because the capturing.
Aide Escamilla, who works on the native junior school, says voter lack of participation quantities to apathy.
She added: “The bloodbath didn’t change something.” “And I don’t suppose this mayoral race will mirror something completely different in our neighborhood.”
Mata Rubio thanks the gang on the second annual Lexi’s Legacy Run on Oct. 21, organized in reminiscence of her daughter.
Brenda Bazan for NPR
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Brenda Bazan for NPR
Mata Rubio thanks the gang on the second annual Lexi’s Legacy Run on Oct. 21, organized in reminiscence of her daughter.
Brenda Bazan for NPR
Some Uvalde residents informed NPR they do not need folks to recollect them as town that witnessed a mass capturing.
“I’ve compassion that others haven’t got,” Mata Rubio mentioned about what units her management other than different candidates. “I misplaced my daughter.” “However I additionally perceive the opposite aspect, and I additionally perceive that there’s a want to maneuver ahead since you do not need to keep on this heaviness and this ache.”
Different candidates
When the present mayor, Don McLaughlin, introduced he would step all the way down to pursue one other political place, Mata Rubio texted her husband: “Ought to I run?”
“He mentioned, ‘You are able to do this. You are Lexi’s mother,’” Mata-Rubio mentioned.
That is all she wanted to listen to.
Mata Rubio faces two candidates: Cody Smith, a former native politician, and Veronica Martinez, an elementary college artwork instructor.
Smith, a senior vice chairman at First State Financial institution of Uvalde, spent greater than a decade on the Metropolis Council and was elected mayor in 2008. He was re-elected in 2010. Smith declined to be interviewed for this story, however issued a press release to NPR.
“As a former mayor for 4 years and a Metropolis Council member for 13 years, I perceive the management this place gives to not solely unite and strengthen our neighborhood, however to facilitate a wave of distinction makers who can impression our residents for generations,” the assertion learn.
Some voters spoke to NPR to say Smith is a well-recognized face. They really feel they know what to anticipate from his management, whereas many have no idea the opposite candidates.
Elementary college artwork instructor Veronica Martinez can also be operating for mayor of Uvalde.
Brenda Bazan for NPR
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Elementary college artwork instructor Veronica Martinez can also be operating for mayor of Uvalde.
Brenda Bazan for NPR
Martinez is a brand new face, and hopes to make the council extra accessible to residents. She has attended metropolis conferences and mentioned they have to be extra collaborative.
“Communication is an enormous difficulty and it is time to attain out to one another. It is time to be heard,” she informed NPR.
Martinez additionally hopes to be the one to assist the neighborhood heal.
“We want somebody who is ready to shepherd the neighborhood in the suitable path,” she mentioned. “Somebody who will be capable of tackle these destructive feedback or will be capable of tackle these destructive points with out being biased, I believe.”
Lexi’s legacy
Two weeks after a gunman stormed their daughter’s college, the Rubios household appealed to members of Congress to enact stricter gun management legal guidelines.
“We perceive for some cause, for some folks, for individuals who have cash, individuals who fund political campaigns, that weapons are extra necessary than kids,” Mata Rubio mentioned on the time.
Together with different members of the family who’ve misplaced family members, the couple has spent the previous yr and a half advocating for gun reform. First, they needed an entire ban on assault weapons on the federal degree. When that did not work, they centered on the state degree – elevating the age from 18 to 21. That additionally failed.
Lexi Rubio’s grave was adorned with balloons and flowers on October 21, at some point after her birthday.
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Lexi Rubio’s grave was adorned with balloons and flowers on October 21, at some point after her birthday.
Brenda Bazan for NPR
Struggling for change will help within the therapeutic course of, says Rona Milo Haglili, a psychologist who research the connection between trauma and activism.
“When trauma occurs, it actually shatters our sense of that means and goal,” Milo Haglili informed NPR. “A variety of them would possibly say, ‘I didn’t select that. “I simply must do it.’ But it surely’s nonetheless one thing they really feel compelled to do, and that gives a sense of empowerment.”
In July, Mata Rubio launched her marketing campaign to develop into mayor of Uvalde. Quickly, she was knocking on doorways and passing out yard indicators in vibrant yellow, Lexi’s favourite colour.
Nevertheless, despite the fact that her title has been talked about within the nationwide media, not everybody within the metropolis is aware of who she is.
Again on the monitor on a current heat Saturday, she caught up with Joel Alvarado. He says he noticed her title, however he does not know a lot about her. Mata Rubio launched herself and informed him that she lined the Metropolis Council when she was a newspaper reporter Information Chief Uvalde. She says she is now preventing for accountability and transparency, and needs to listen to from residents concerning the points that matter to them.
Mata Rubio reveals off a tattoo of her daughter Lexi, and a bracelet made in her reminiscence that features a baseball attraction as a result of Lexi performed softball.
Brenda Bazan for NPR
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Mata Rubio reveals off a tattoo of her daughter Lexi, and a bracelet made in her reminiscence that features a baseball attraction as a result of Lexi performed softball.
Brenda Bazan for NPR
In virtually each interplay between Mata Rubio and folks, there’s a point out of Rob and Lexi’s elementary college.
Alvarado steps in and notices Mata Rubio’s tattoos – of Lexi’s title, face, and drawings.
“I do not suppose we will transfer ahead except we get the solutions that everybody on this neighborhood deserves,” Mata Rubio later mentioned. “What went improper that day and the way will we be sure that it does not occur once more.”
For Mata Rubio, this implies convincing the folks of Uvalde that she is the suitable one that will help her metropolis heal — not regardless of her grief, however due to it.
Joanna Summers contributed to this report.