The Mayan War Room was a collaborative exhibit and pop-up campaign office for the Justice 4 Luis grassroots movement, hosted by the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts (MCCLA).

I worked with José Góngora Pat and his family in Teabo, Yucatán to curate the exhibit, which featured embroidered protest posters and altar mantels sent from his hometown, alongside artwork and materials created over two years of community activism in San Francisco.

Each weekday during the exhibit’s two-week run, we used the Mayan War Room as an active organizing space, where we prepared protest visuals for our next day action outside the District Attorney’s office.

Mornings began at peak office entry hours outside the District Attorney’s Office, where we held a one-hour protest demanding that DA George Gascón press charges against the police officers who killed Luis. Then we returned to the War Room to regroup, rest, and prepare for the next day.

The final weekend, before our countdown to justice reached zero, we closed out the Mayan War Room with jaraneros and drumming to start a 24-hour vigil in front of the DA’s office.

The vigil honored 24 people killed by police during Gascón’s tenure—none of whose cases had resulted in criminal charges against officers.