Community members gathered Wednesday in Albuquerque’s International District to honor the lives of unhoused people who died in the city this year.
About 150 people came together at The Compassion Center, a service-based industry helping people on the streets. Pastor Joanne Landry gave a short speech and a prayer before starting a march.
Participants walked while carrying a giant banner that read “Remembering lives unhoused,” silently marching through traffic halted by police escort.
Folks then packed inside the American Indian Center, chanting “Presente!” with each name, 130 in all. Then mourners started adding on, calling names out to the crowd, sometimes identifying their friend or loved one with only a first or nickname, like Buddah.
Mayor Tim Keller was in attendance, as was City Councilor Nichole Rogers and other prominent figures, but none of them spoke or took the spotlight for a moment, keeping the focus on those who passed.
After a Native American prayer song and smudging ceremony, when sacred herbs are burned for purification, Former Albuquerque Poet Laureate Anna Martinez took the mic and pointed to one of the signs bearing people’s names.
“I want you to know that this here is my daughter Amanda Allison Archuleta,” she said, “who passed away one street up from here on the corner of Tennessee and Central.”
Martinez then read a poem about Christmas in honor of the dead.
“I'm hoping that it will remind us that every single one of them, every single one that perished here, every single one of them that is out there struggling is a child of God, a child of Christ, a precious life and soul that needed nurturing and taken care of. And we need to do that where they are at.” she said.
The ceremony ended with a solemn rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”
Support for this coverage comes from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
