2023-07-03 18:52:00
The organization Change The Ref, which raises awareness about mass shootings, began the Guac’s Magical Tour on Monday, July 3, during which it will tour 23 cities that have been victims of gun violence.
On board a yellow school bus, the parents of Joaquín Oliver, a young victim of the shooting at the Stoneman Douglas School in Parkland, Florida, began the tour in Orlando.
The tour has 23 stops in commemoration of Joaquín’s age, who would be turning 23, and is called Guac’s, as his relatives called him.
The activity is carried out under the framework of the guacatonan annual event created in 2020 to celebrate Joaquin’s birthday.
Patricia Oliver, Joaquín’s mother, declared in an interview with Univisión that the purpose of the Guac’s Magical Tour is to bring different expressions of art to other cities so that the relatives of shooting victims have a space to commemorate their loved ones in a positive way.
The bus is technologically equipped to carry out protests anywhere, it has horns, a platform that unfolds on the roof of the car, screens and the Internet.
In addition, the vehicle has anti-arms messages stamped on it and inside it has sculptures, such as that of a girl hiding under a desk.
“(The sculpture) represents the harsh American reality in schools, you see the little girls tucked under the tables waiting for a miracle to happen,” explained Manuel Oliver, Joaquín’s father.
Guac’s Magical Tour route
Leaving from Parkland, among the 23 cities to visit are Atlanta, New Orleans, Santa Fe, Uvalde, El Paso, San Diego, Tucson, Oklahoma, Kansas, Chicago, Nashville, Louisville, New York, among others.
They will arrive in Washington DC on August 17 and the tour will end in Charleston on August 20.
Interested people can follow the journey through the website and Change The Ref social networks, as well as supporting them through the GoFundMe Guac’s Magical Tour.
What is Change The Ref?
After Joaquín’s assassination in 2018, Venezuelan immigrants Manuel and Patricia Oliver founded the organization Change The Ref, in order to empower future leaders by providing the necessary tools to make change through education, conversation and activism.
Change The Ref uses street art and nonviolent creative confrontation to expose the disastrous effects of mass shootings.
These parents have become outspoken advocates for gun violence prevention. In July 2022, Manuel was escorted out of a White House event for interrupting President Joe Biden as he celebrated the passage of bipartisan gun control legislation.
In February 2023, the father launched the “Penalty Flag for Change” campaign, which aimed to “expose the indifference of 34 Republican lawmakers” who voted against a bipartisan gun control law.
For that campaign, he made symbolic use of the yellow flags that penalize American football players, taking advantage of the fact that at that time the country was preparing for one of the most media events at the national level: the Super Bowl.
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