From a very young age, Marco Vargas saw violence inside and outside his home; He even came to think that being born in that environment, that kind of attitudes and actions was normal. The young man who is now 17 grew up in a low-income neighborhood in south central Los Angeles.
Vargas said that his father, who was the main provider of the family, abused his mother in front of him and his two brothers. Shortly after, he bought a firearm illegally and began to threaten Vargas’s mother with killing her.
“It was a very difficult situation because my mother couldn’t leave because she had no money and it didn’t work. He had three children and was in a country that he did not know, “said the young man.
On the street it was not very different. Shootings were heard almost daily, which to some extent were already mistaken for pyrotechnic fires.
Vargas became insensitive to gun violence and daily dodged death inside and outside home.
Resists violence
A similar situation faced Justin Funes who was born in the United States but when he was just a baby his parents took him to Honduras, the country where they are natives.
“There they told us that we had to learn to live with ”Fúnez recalled.
However, in an effort to escape violence and poverty, Fúnez’s family emigrated to Mexico when he was 9 years old and when he was 16 years decided to travel to the United States in search of a better future. He came to live in the house of an aunt in the city of Compton.
But Fúnez, who did not know Los Angeles, did not expect to see that his life would continue surrounded by the firearms to which he was getting used to it. Until a few years ago, Compton was plagued by gangs and gun violence. It was then that he understood that he could not normalize that situation.
“It was necessary for the youngest of us to start advocating for a change,” said Fúnez.
The goal of wanting to end the excessive use of firearms led Vargas and Fúnez to become part of Students Demand Action, a national organization that focuses on advocating for ending the use of firearms in schools. communities.
The organization indicates that the use of firearms is the leading cause of death among children and teenagers. It is estimated that every day some 100 people are killed by a bullet in the United States and hundreds more are wounded.
No more guns
When Vargas was in high school she found out that a friend’s stepfather had shot her and went to visit the hospital.
“It was one of the ugliest things I had ever seen. We didn’t know if she was going to recover or not, ”Vargas said. “The situation she was facing did not look good at all.”
Around that time the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida also occurred in the 1024, which left 17 dead and 17 wounded. It was then that Vargas understood the severity of the misuse of firearms and recognized that he was a survivor of this violence.
That same year Vargas graduated from high school and was accepted at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, one of the best universities in the United States and considered the Ivy League -an elite college-, where he is about to obtain a degree in Spanish.
Being away from home on His first year motivated him to get more involved with Students Demand Action. In the 2018 organized a summer program to teach youth from low-income communities to advocate against the use of firearms.
“It was a way of giving something back to my community,” said Vargas. “With the program we teach the boys about the prevention of the use of firearms.”
One of the participants was Fúnez, who by then already understood that violence with firearms Fire was not normal and they had to do something to end it.
“It’s never too early to start advocating for the arrest of firearms,” said Fúnez, who graduated from high school. last year and was accepted to the University of Chicago where he studies Political Science.
Fúnez was in charge of organizing the second summer program with young people in the 2020, and this year he is planning a similar program in the city of Chicago.
Vargas assured that the movement to ending the use of weapons became personal and since then, he has not stopped trying to improve communities mainly of color.
“At home we lived with an abusive and irresponsible father who carried a firearm, ”Vargas said. “I became a leading student on the subject because I feel like this helps me deal with the trauma.”
Invite involvement
Student leaders invite others to be part of the movement. Those interested can send a text message with the word “Student” to 644 – 33.
To know more about Students Demand Action visit: https://studentsdemandaction.org/