know. There I asked the president, I said:
“Hey man, what’s up? Aren’t you coming?”
“Help me out, no? I’ve got to make a trip to Chilpo. Cover for me.”
“Sure, man. No worries.”
We kept walking and Cochi said to me:
“Compa, I need more people. We’re going to get some buses.”
“Okay, no problem.”
“Lend me the activists.”
“That’s not my decision. That’s up to the COPI,2”— and right there was the compa in charge of the COPI and Cochi asked him.
“Hey, lend me the activists so we can go bring some buses.”
The COPI asked me directly:
“Are you going?”
“Yeah, I’m going,” I told him.
“Alright then, take ’em.”
And so the activists came out and got on the bus.
The atmosphere on the bus was fucking cool, for real. We were joking around. We were on two buses, two Estrellas de Oro. I was riding with the driver that everyone called Chavelote, Big Kid, and behind us, in the other bus, there were two other bus drivers. One was called Ambulancia, Ambulance, and the other Manotas, Big Hands. Manotas was driving the bus and Ambulancia was just going along for the ride. The atmosphere, I tell you, was fucking awesome. The freshmen were all joking around, and those of us sophomores at the front of the bus were doing the same.
The ones who were riding with Manotas and Ambulancia stayed behind at a place called Rancho del Cura, to ask for donations, and we went to the highway to grab the buses. We stopped and were just waiting for some buses to drive by so we could grab them. But there we noticed something strange. When some buses started to approach on the highway, the federal police stopped the buses, made the passengers get off, and sent the buses back. And the passengers came from the tollbooth on foot.
That’s when I said to Cochi: “No, man, the jig is up, we aren’t going to be able to grab anything.” We were going to go back to the college when we got a call that some other compañeros, who had grabbed a bus that was going to drop its passengers off at the station, were being detained. So we took off fast, we went straight to the bus station to bust out the compañeros being held there.
ÓSCAR LÓPEZ HERNÁNDEZ, 18, FRESHMAN. There in Huitzuco we started to keep a look out for buses. First we grabbed a Costa Line. Right then we asked the driver to take us to the college, because we were going to go to an event on October 2, the march they hold every year. And yes, the driver said, okay, and ten compañeros got on the bus because first the driver was going to drop off the passengers in Iguala. Ten compañeros got on the bus. About ten minutes went by and they hadn’t come back, so the guy from the committee said to call those compañeros, because a lot of time had passed. We tried to reach the compañeros. Then one of them called us and said: “Compas, we’ve got a problem here with security, the bus driver won’t let us out, he locked us in the bus.”
URIEL ALONSO SOLÍS, 19, SOPHOMORE. First we went to the Huitzuco stop and the first bus arrived. We spoke with the driver and he said yes. There were about five of us who got on the bus. We arrived at the bus station and that’s when he said, “No, can’t do it, nope. . . .” He had changed his mind and said no, not anymore. And since we were already there and we didn’t have any money with us to get back, we called the compañeros.
“You know what, come get us,” we said. “We’re in the bus station. The driver changed his mind. We’re trapped on board the bus, the driver already got off. He locked us in.”
“Hold tight,” they said, “we’re on our way.” And that’s when they came.
EDGAR YAIR, 18, FRESHMAN. We left around five-thirty, I think. We left in two buses from the parking lot here. I was in the second bus. The bus was sort of packed, there were a bunch of us. We arrived at the entrance to Iguala. We got out where we were going to do the action. It was around six or seven at night. Around eight o’clock a bus drove by. The driver was going to help us out, you know, getting to the march. But he had passengers. So the driver needed to drop off his passengers at their destination, which was the bus station in Iguala.
Ten of our compañeros, about ten, got on the bus. They left with the bus and we stayed back in the same place where we’d been. Well, we’d been out there for about another hour and we saw that our compañeros didn’t return. It was night at that point, it was already dark. Then we got a call from a compañero who said they’d been held at the bus station. We had to go and set them free. So we went. We got there and we all covered our faces with our T-shirts, so they couldn’t identify us, to protect our identities. We were there demanding that they let our compañeros out. At last they let them go, but we were angry by that point, and we grabbed three buses from the station there. We forced the drivers to take us in the buses. Two buses went a different way out of the station and the other three buses went out toward Avenue Juan N. Álvarez.
ALEX ROJAS, FRESHMAN. The two buses stopped near Huitzuco along a part of the highway that’s really straight. There’s a restaurant near there; I think it’s called La Palma. We stopped there by the restaurant. There’s a little chapel there where a number of us who are believers went to pray and make the sign of the cross. The first bus left. I don’t know exactly where it went, but it took off toward Iguala and I think they went to the tollbooth. I think they were going to do the action there. We stayed there, near the restaurant, where the highway is really straight, to avoid any accidents.
We started to do the action, and sure enough, a bus passed by, which we stopped and commandeered. The bus had passengers on board. So as not to affect the bus riders, we decided to take them to the station. I got on that bus with another seven compañeros and a member of the committee. We boarded the bus and left. I was talking with some of the passengers on their way to Iguala. They said to me that they were afraid and asked us not to do anything to them. I told them not to worry, that we never did anything to citizens, to the people, that we only did this action because it was necessary since we don’t have any vehicles at the school to use for transportation to our actions, whether it’s going to the march to commemorate the student massacre, or fundraising activities, or the classroom observations and exercises that the sophomores, juniors, and seniors all do.
I was talking with a woman and some other people in that part of the bus, telling them not to worry, that we never mean to inconvenience them, much less harm them, that we were just kids who were at the college to study, but that it was necessary to do this to be able to carry out our activities and attend some events at the other rural teachers colleges. That’s what I was talking with them about. A number of passengers were talking with us, and we were all getting along well.
“Yes, guys, we understand, but we still got scared when you all stopped the bus.”
“Don’t worry,” I said to them, “we’re going to the bus station, we’ll let you all off there without any problems and we’ll then continue with our action like we do every year, totally normal.”
We arrived at the bus station and yeah, all the passengers got off. We stayed on board the bus and told the driver that we had to get back.
