Nov. 20, 1910, was the day that marked the start of the Mexican Revolution leading to Mexico’s independence. But this year, the day’s revolutionary spirit could be seen in the people marching through the streets of Mexico, for the 43 missing Ayotzinapa students of Guerrero, Mexico — and also in City College, as students marched through the streets of downtown San Diego, for the same cause.

At 4 p.m., students with painted posters and banners, as well as professors, faculty members, and people from different communities gathered in front of City College on the grass, alongside Park Boulevard. The gathering was for a rally and march, starting at City College and ending with a candlelit vigil at the Mexican Consulate, as a way to widen the world’s lens on Ayotzinapa and the 43 normalistas (students training to become teachers) who were kidnapped Sept. 26 and are still missing. The event was organized by the campus organizations TAINH and Students in Power, and aided by other activist groups.

“We’re out here because we want to stand in solidarity with the students and the people of Mexico, especially the people of Iguala, Guerro — all the people who are suffering extreme narco violence and governmental oppression,” said student activist Christian Gamez.

Student speakers Luis López Resendiz, a writer for campus newsletter El Coyote, and Stephanie Meraz, a member of Students in Power, rounded up the turnout and formed a circle so the speakers could begin.

Among the speakers was the head of the Chicano Studies Department, professor Enrique Davalos, who shared some words.

“We are setting foot; making history and this is why we are traveling a long way, a way that has been a long one and continues today in the present. It is why that today we can say with dignity that our peers of Ayotzinapa are not alone,” Davalos said over a microphone, speaking in Spanish. “And it is why we can say that we now are living on this side of the fence, now living on this side of the empire, we will do everything we can to prevent the allies from the Mexican government and U.S., the intelligence departments and police and U.S. army and Mexican government support and repress our brothers, our sisters who are struggling in Mexico from this side of the border, we will not allow it. Viva Ayotzinapa!”

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Davalos started by thanking the clubs and students for being involved. He continued by remembering San Diego’s longtime involvement in the history of Mexico on both sides of the border; from when the Mexican government was fighting the French to the Mexican Revolution, stating the revolution was in San Diego as well. He also added San Diego’s Chicana and Chicano students were there with the student movement in Mexico against corruption, on the U.S. side of the border, during the uprisings of ’68.

The march was led through the rain and was fired up by students like Resendiz and Meraz booming chants with the microphones; chants such as “we are people without borders,” “Ayotzinapa live, the struggle continues,” and “he will fall, he will fall, Peña Nieto will fall.”