Saturday, 28 Sep 2024

Revisiting Gilroy: ‘It’s Still Kind of a Raw Emotion’

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It’s now been a little more than a week since a gunman opened fire at the Gilroy Garlic Festival — a major tourist draw that community members say has always felt more like a family reunion — killing three and injuring 13 others, before killing himself.

I had reached out to Mark Turner, the president and chief executive of the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce, in the frantic aftermath of the shooting, hoping to talk with anyone who had witnessed the chaos. I also wanted to learn more about the festival’s role in a tight-knit community.

By the time we caught up by phone this week, 31 more people had been killed in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio. That’s 31 more people whose families will never be whole. Dozens more were injured, and survivors who don’t bear physical scars will almost certainly carry emotional ones.

None of that will make Gilroy’s healing process any easier.

On the day of the shooting, Mr. Turner said, he was starting to take down the beer booth the chamber operates every year when shots rang out. He thought his wife and daughter were still at the festival near where the gunfire was coming from, so he took off in that direction.

[Read The Times’s latest coverage of the shootings here.]

His family had already left, he said. But Mr. Turner said he saw people who had been shot and were bleeding. He helped some into the refrigerated trailer where he and other volunteers were taking shelter.

In the days that followed, he said, the community rallied. Residents showed up for vigils and printed the words “Gilroy Strong” on T-shirts. Local restaurants fed law enforcement officers.

But Mr. Turner said the shootings over the weekend reopened the wound.

“It’s still kind of a raw emotion that we’re dealing with,” he said. “The community really takes on the burden of grief and sorrow.”

Still, he said there was a kind of silver lining to the tragedy, and he’s certain leaders in El Paso and Dayton will experience something like it, too.

“The kindness, the generosity, the goodness that have been accentuated throughout this entire event,” he said, “that’s been an amazing sight to see.”

Mr. Turner, who has headed the chamber for six years, spoke calmly and with a kind of careful authority that reflected his time as an associate pastor at South Valley Community Church.

He said the Chamber puts on its own events, including a car show later this month, where he’ll be thinking about how to balance increasing security without making visitors feel like they’re surrounded by armed guards.

Mr. Turner said he expects the Garlic Festival’s organizers will spend much of the next year thinking through some of those same questions.

Nevertheless, he said, there was a sense in town that “we’re going to come back bigger and better than ever.”

Here are more updates on the mass shootings:

The F.B.I. has opened a domestic terrorism investigation into the Gilroy shooting. The gunman’s parents said they were “deeply shocked and horrified” by what their son had done. [The New York Times]

The mother of Keyla Salazar watched as her 13-year-old daughter was gunned down in Gilroy. Her family is left with reminders of her: A pink teddy bear, plastic stars on the ceiling of her room. [The Los Angeles Times]

“It feels like being hunted.” Latinos in the U.S., from California to Miami, described being the targets of racism in incidents that have taken on a new edge in the wake of the El Paso shooting. [The New York Times]

If you missed it, here’s more about the history of violence against people of Mexican descent in California. [The New York Times]

Here’s what else we’re following

(We often link to sites that limit access for nonsubscribers. We appreciate your reading Times coverage, but we also encourage you to support local news if you can.)

Cities keep allowing development where fires have already burned down homes. That’s a big problem. [Mother Jones]

Here’s a map of where people lack a plumbed connection to sewers or drinking water. (It’s linked to race and ethnicity; American Indian and Alaskan Native, Hispanic and Black Americans are disproportionately affected.) [CityLab]

Another turn of the screw in the case of a raid on a journalist’s San Francisco home: Records show a judge would have had numerous indications that he was signing a warrant authorizing a search of a journalist’s apartment. [The San Francisco Chronicle]

A group of Democratic senators demanded that Google convert its more than 120,000 contract and temporary workers, many of whom say they’re treated as an underclass, to full-time employees. [The New York Times]

Disney reported its quarterly earnings on Tuesday. They were weak. The behemoth is contending with escalating streaming-service losses and underperforming 21st Century Fox assets. And Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge has attracted fewer people than expected. [The New York Times]

Rethinking and reinventing

Can millennials save Playboy? From the brand’s Westwood headquarters, a magazine that would be unrecognizable to Hugh Hefner is emerging. [The New York Times]

“Coronado is gone — long live Coronado.” The San Diego-Coronado Bridge is an icon today. But it was contested when it was built 50 years ago. [The San Diego Union-Tribune]

Marie Kondo wants to set the record straight: The house she shares with her husband in Los Angeles is not spotless. “Being pressed for time is common for all of us,” she said. [Better Homes & Gardens]

“Fantasy — and our enjoyment of it — speaks to something we deeply want to believe,” writes the California-based author Viet Thanh Nguyen. That’s why he can’t dismiss “Miss Saigon” as pure entertainment. [New York Times Opinion]

And Finally …

On what would have been the 14th birthday of Keyla Salazar, Rocío Dúrcal’s version of “Amor Eterno” played at a memorial for the girl in San Jose, The Salinas Californian reported.

And at vigils and funerals for the victims of the massacre in El Paso, the familiar strains of the song, written by the pop star Juan Gabriel, rang out with extra potency.

My colleague Daniel Hernandez wrote about the 1984 ballad’s significance to Mexican-Americans and Mexicans — as a loving farewell and as a reminder of a heritage that knows no border.

So we’re adding it to the California Soundtrack.

Listen to the playlist on Spotify here.

California Today goes live at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: [email protected]. Were you forwarded this email? Sign up for California Today here.

Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, went to school at U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter, @jillcowan.

California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.

Jill Cowan is the California Today correspondent, keeping tabs on the most important things happening in her home state every day. @jillcowan

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