Commemorating police over Latino death

This essay interrogates the relationship between commemorations and violence against Latinx communities using two case studies in Anaheim, California. The first case study analyzes a spontaneous altar of Manuel Diaz, a young Latino male who died at the hands of police, and the second examines the construction of a formal statue honoring the work of police K9s following the police shooting death of another Latino male, Robert Moreno Jr. I undertake an in-depth examination using city council meeting minutes, English- and Spanish-language newspapers, and district attorneys’ reports. I find that the city adopted a nurturing approach toward the K9 commemoration, contrasting sharply with the hostile approach toward Manuel Diaz’s altar. I argue that these contrasting approaches resulted in expanding Latinx criminalization beyond death itself, in opposition toward the Latinx community’s mourning and healing, and in reification of a hero narrative surrounding police work. Despite Latinx community members’ attempts to commemorate, these efforts left little physical mark on the landscape. Taken together, these two cases demonstrate how public space reflects valorization of police work and vilification of Latinx claims to public space.