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Sali Marcella Grace Eiler (1987-2008) or Sali Rattytat , as she often went by, was a rattytatty* social activist. Originally from Oregon, she lived in Tucson and in Oaxaca, Mexico for the last couple of years. When in Tucson, she’d spend 5 days of the week traveling to Nogales, Mariposa and Aravaca to volunteer at the No More Deaths aid stations.
Sali was not only passionate about helping people (she’d dumperster food and carry it back on her bike to take to the people at the border camps) but also about dance, specifically bellydancing.
She was fearless and generally thought to be invincible and oh so very creative. Sali also played the banjo and provided the vocals for a punk band, Cizana. Before her death, she was living and working in Oaxaca, as a dance teacher and social activist, and acting as an observer for an indigenous rights organization- CIPO-RFM.
Sali was murdered on September 15th, 2008 and newspapers reported that Mexico City resident Omar Yoguez Singu confessed that he had killed Sali with a machete. Her body was found on September 24, 2008 near the Oaxaca town of San José del Pacifico, where she had arrived to dance at a fundraiser. She died 2 weeks before her 21st birthday.
Sali had not only touched, known, loved and brought together so many people in Tucson, but all over North America and Mexico, so it is natural that the amount of grief and rage over her pointless, unnatural and unforgivable death is tremendous, although there is great joy too that Sali was both, able to love so very much and loved so much in return. There is also great frustration about not knowing very many details regarding the exact circumstances of her death as well as the manner in which some sort of justice might take place. Some observers suggest that Sali’s murder was related to a “systematic repression of social movements” in Mexico, and particular targeting of international observers.
Links to some of Sali’s causes.
http://www.nomoredeaths.org/ - No More Deaths
http://www.nodo50.org/cipo/ - Consejo Indígena Popular de Oaxaca
For humanitarian and Sali related updates – http://barkingzanahorias.blogspot.com/
To always remember and love Sali add these two words to your vocabulary
*rattytat- (n) someone who not only loves to have fun and roll-in-the-dirt but also actively spends their life helping and reaching out to people. rattytatty- (adj)
