Southwestern College and the South Bay community honored the lives lost at the McDonalds 35 years ago in what was at the time America’s worst mass shooting. A deranged shooter killed 21 and injured at least 19 others.
McDonald’s was planning on reopening after the shooting, but San Ysidro resident Gloria Salas did not think a restaurant was appropriate. She walked up to the site with a large sign that read “Memorial Park.” Nervously she approached the police surrounding the site, only to have them help her put up her sign on the fence. McDonald’s owner Joan Kroc got the message, Salas said, and McDonald’s donated the site to the city of San Diego.
The city sold the site area to SC in 1988, and the San Ysidro satellite campus was born.
“Most of the people were fixing the funerals for their families,” Salas said. “I had to be their voice.”
San Ysidro’s memorial features 21 hexagon pillars. Built by former Southwestern College student Roberto Valdez, the pillars vary of white marble, one for each victim.
“They are different heights, representing the variety of ages and races of the people involved in the massacre,” he said. “They are bonded together in the hopes that the community, in a tragedy like this, will stick together, like they did.” “This is our pain. Our city. So, we cherish that, it makes us stronger.”
