Spanish and Portuguese Department Statement on Campus Protests
and May 15th, 2024 Police Violence at UC Irvine
The Department of Spanish and Portuguese strongly condemns the violent police response against peaceful students and faculty who were present at the Gaza solidarity encampment and at the Physical Sciences Lecture Hall on the afternoon of Wednesday, May 15th 2024.
Numerous faculty and student eyewitnesses confirm that police presence rapidly escalated when protesters opened the barricades surrounding the encampment and moved their shade structures and tents toward the PSLH building and when they dropped banners from the building balcony. This gesture expressed discontent with the suspensions drawn against three students while they were involved in the negotiating process with the administration, which demonstrated the administration's unwillingness to have a dialogue in good faith. No one was harmed and no university property was damaged during a symbolic move that was met with a grotesquely unrestrained display of police force.
We are dismayed that no effort was made by the administration to de-escalate the situation before police forces from at least 22 different departments were called in, and police officers in full riot gear surrounded protesters. We also condemn the misleading zotALERTS that were sent out to the UCI community, falsely claiming that the protest was violent and that everyone should shelter in place. These messages caused unnecessary fear, generated false narratives and triggered lasting anxiety for students, faculty and staff. While eyewitnesses and video recordings showed that the protest was peaceful, these messages construed the scene as violent to justify the deployment of police.
We are shocked that students and faculty were arrested with excessive force, being thrown to the ground, beaten with batons, threatened with tear gas and tasers, and in some cases, restrained by up to four officers even when they were not actively resisting arrest. We are horrified that many of those arrested were injured, zip-tied for hours, held in frigid holding cells, searched repeatedly without cause, and that hijab-wearing women had their head coverings forcefully removed while in detention. We are also alarmed by the long university suspensions given to arrested students (up to two weeks), which places them in a precarious situation of not having access to housing and impedes them from continuing their studies in a timely manner.
UC Irvine’s actions are all the more appalling given the precedent of other instances of police violence against students at campuses such as Columbia, UCLA and UCSD, and the successful negotiations that took place between protesters and administration at Brown, UC Berkeley and UC Riverside. How is it possible that UCI did not learn from the mistakes and the successes of other universities?
Many faculty in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese come from countries where repression and state violence have led to the death and disappearance of countless students and activists. Many of our students, both graduate and undergraduate, are part of minoritized populations that are often targets of police violence. As a department, it is our role to foster an intellectual community where immigrant, minoritized and undocumented students feel safe and at home. This space of solidarity was shattered last week. The shameful events of May 15th have harmed the standing of UC Irvine as a public university that protects freedom of speech and promotes student learning and growth. How can UC Irvine continue to claim to be a supportive institution that values diversity, inclusiveness and wellbeing when the administration acts violently against its own students?
Chancellor Gillman should be held fully accountable for the excessive and unwarranted deployment of police force on May 15th. The Department of Spanish and Portuguese demands complete transparency from the administration, and calls for all charges against faculty and students who face disciplinary actions to be immediately dropped.
Faculty and Graduate Students in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Ana María Amar-Sánchez, Professor Emerita
Luis Avilés, Professor
Ivette Hernández-Torres, Associate Professor Emerita
Marco Antonio Huerta Alardín, Mellon Humanities Faculty Fellow 2023034
Horacio Legrás, Professor
Viviane Mahieux, Associate Professor and Interim Chair
Santiago Morales-Rivera, Associate Professor
Gonzalo Navajas, Professor Emeritus
Rocío Pichon-Rivière, Assistant Professor
Jacobo Sefamí, Professor
Julio Torres, Associate Professor
Natalia Álvarez Zanza, Graduate Student
Alejandra Castellanos, Graduate Student
Luis Fernando de la Cruz Herrera, Graduate Student
Federico De Palma, Graduate Student
Julia Gómez Rodríguez, Graduate Student
Fernanda Hernández Paredes, Graduate Student
María Elizabeth Massena, Graduate Student
McKenna Middleton, Graduate Student
Gwendolen Paré, Graduate Student
Mell Rivera, Graduate Student
Raúl Romo, Graduate Student
Carina Saiidi Padilla, Graduate Student
Marco Antonio Sánchez Cano, Graduate Student
Jeanie Toscano, Graduate Student
José María Urdaneta, Graduate Student
Jennifer Vásquez, Graduate Student
Landon Miguel Yañez, Graduate Student