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Tommytown mothers walk to rescue children

By ANDREW SKERRITT, Times Columnist
Published August 21, 2007

Ana, Anita, and Victoria.

Mothers with heavy hearts. Their children, sons mostly, were caught in the snare of drugs - marijuana, crack cocaine. Some went to jail; others, to drug treatment programs.

The women cried and spoke in Spanish, then English. Their anguish was dramatic in either language. Two weeks later they gathered for a vigil in the Tommytown neighborhood of Dade City, intending to rescue their children.

Seventy people showed up. When they walk again at 6 o'clock this evening, they hope to see twice as many.

They call themselves the AntiDrug Coalition of Families. They'll meet by Northside Baptist Church on Calle de Milagros, then they'll walk for about a mile. They'll sing the songs they learned in church as children; they'll stop at the drug-dealing intersections and pray. They'll hoist a banner that says, "Jesus Loves You and we do too. Help us make our streets safer for our children."

When they marched the first time, young men honked their horns and blasted their stereos. But the music of youthful rebellion didn't silence the prayers and the hymns.

Tommytown is a tough neighborhood, but the marchers don't want a police escort. That would send the wrong message. This is a rescue, not a search and destroy mission.

Such grass roots movements have hatched and fizzled before. People get tired of walking and move on to something else. But I don't believe that will happen this time. There is serious passion and a clear understanding of the stakes.

"If we give up, our children die; if we do this, maybe they'll live," said Margarita Romo, head of Farmworkers Self Help Inc., which is coordinating the vigil.

Many of the mothers who started this support group toiled as migrant farm workers hoping their children would find a better life in America. Now instead of attending high school and college graduations, the women spend days sitting in courtrooms and visiting jails.

"Mothers, they are the ones who feel the pain when their children get into trouble," said vigil coordinator Marisol Arellano, herself a child of migrant workers. She grew up in Tommytown, left the community twice but returned to work for Farmworkers Self Help. There are photo albums in the office with pictures of happy little boys who are now grown men peddling drugs on the streets of Tommytown.

Arellano, 22, is married, has a 3-year-old daughter and is 6 months pregnant with twins. In her condition, she'd rather not be walking on those dirt roads in the August heat. But it's something she wants to do for all those other mothers.

Women desperately trying to reclaim their lost children.

Andrew Skerritt can be reached at 813 909-4602 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 4602. His e-mail address is askerritt@sptimes.com

If you go

Vigil at 6 tonight

To learn about tonight's vigil, call (352) 567-1432.

[Last modified August 20, 2007, 21:13:41]