VivirLatino

Today is the actual date, 20 years later, that 19 year old Manny Mayi was chased 14 blocks and beaten to death the whole way, by a group of racist young men in Corona, Queens.

Today, Manny Mayi’s mother, Altagracia, will go to where her son lost consciousness, never to wake up, and lay flowers on the corner that now bears his name, 108th Street and 36th Avenue.

The hate motivated crime that occurred in 1991 has stood as placeholder of injustice for the Latino community in Queens and NYC as a whole. As hate crimes against Latinos rise again across the country, it is way too easy to fall into a sort of collective forgetting, a thinking that this growing fear and violent response to the changing face of neighborhoods across the U.S. happens only once in a while. But our collective community history, knows better.

Here is a video from the rally held last Sunday in front of One Police Plaza in NYC featuring Martha Laureano Perez from the Justice Committee, the organization that has been working with the Mayi family since the crime happened (and full disclosure – I once led the JC).

Martha Laureano Perez of the Justice Committee, NYC on the 20th Anniversary of Hate Crime Killing of Manny Mayi Jr. from VivirLatino on Vimeo.

Martha Laureano Perez, of the Justice Committee NYC, speaks in front of 1 Police Plaza NYC on the relevance of the Manny Mayi Jr. hate crime case 20 years later and the commitment required to support the struggle for justice.