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Thursday, November 03, 2005

Take Back the Night March - Taos Pueblo to Taos Plaza


Take Back the Night was observed in Taos October 20, 2005, as a contingent from Taos Pueblo met a group waiting at Kit Carson Park in Taos. From there, the group marched on to Taos Plaza where there were speakers and others who had something to say about violence and harmony.

Take Back the Night is an international rally and march that is organized in local communities with the purpose of unifying women, men, and children in an awareness of violence against women, children and families. The event is a collaboration of community and campus and other interested persons who are ready to
take a stand against violence and make the night safe for everyone. The march is set to occur around sunset and twilight -- to make that point.

Participants were either given signs and t-shirts or they came bearing their own signs, calling for an end to violence against everyone -- not just women and children. In some cases, people caried signs with photographs of their loved ones who have died because of violence.

Since I have lived in Taos for nearly 20 years, I recognized many of the faces at the march and on the signs. I remember their cases as they came before the public and before juries pleading that those who had done the violence be punished for the heartbreak they had perpertrated -- not only on the woman who had lost her life, but on her family.

I remember the fear that certain cases brought up -- revealing just how thin the membrane of order and safety is. I have seen in other Taos Blogs, mention of Taos' darker side. It is almost as if all the light and grandeur Taos stands for is also balanced by darkness and pettyness, which together, blooms into an awful sickness that leaches out -- day or night -- in our little mountain village.
Take Back the Night rallies and marches began in England as a protest against the fear that women encountered walking the streets at night. The first Take Back the Night in the United States occurred in San Francisco in 1978.

Photographs by Rick Romancito.

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