Jackie Viera also talked about the trouble she has encountered with the school system during the time she has lived in Wilkes-Barre. As a woman of Dominican descent, she, too, attributes the conflict to racism. While she spoke, her daughter listened closely as she cradled her son, Avonni, in her lap. A beautiful child at 8 months, a bright, dark sphere of hair circled his head like a halo. Smiling and playing with his bottle of milk, he represented every reason we should pay attention to women like his grandmother and the two African-American mothers who had mustered the courage to publicly speak out.
Fear usually keeps people quiet.
But these mothers have had enough. And, as frightening as their ordeals must be, they want life to change for the better for their babies. Looking exhausted and lost, she said her landlord had taken the doors off her apartment and turned off the electricity and water. She said witnesses told her that people had been in and out of her apartment all day. All my new baby clothes are in my apartment.