‘Aquí estamos y no nos vamos’: Fruitvale’s immigrant community reflects on a difficult year.
on October 6, 2026
Oakland’s Fruitvale Transit Village Plaza has a new addition. Commissioned by Fruitvale’s Unity Council, a 34-foot-tall handmade La Catrina sculpture was erected this month, ahead of Día de Los Muertos celebrations in November.
The satirical skeleton dates to early 20th century Mexico and is known as an “equalizer” of death that strips away social status and wealth. Standing before it, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee echoed the festival’s theme, which stresses the difficult years Latino immigrants have endured under the Trump administration.
“We are here and we are not leaving,” Lee said in Spanish to a cheering crowd of hundreds of people at the sculpture’s official installation on Thursday.
La Catrina’s skirt is inscribed with a similar message, “Bienvenidos. Aquí estamos y no nos vamos.” (Welcome. We are here and we’re not going anywhere.) Amaury Sanabria, the papier-mâché artisan from Tultepec who created the Catrina, was on hand for the ceremony.
“Seeing it finished, with all the preparations, and seeing people feel moved and excited, I think that’s the best thing in the world,” Sanabria said. The sculpture, he said, is meant to uplift people and to encourage them not to give up.
Regina Zarate, who has lived in Oakland for 32 years, was among those moved by it.
“It’s emotional because many families have been separated, but perhaps our hearts will remain here,” Zarate said.
Given the fear that has gripped immigrant communities, Zarate said she was surprised to see such a large turnout at the event this year, as well as last year.
Fruitvale Dia de los Muertos
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 1
Where: Fruitvale Village
What else: 34-foot tall La Catrina by artist Amaury Sanabria
Advocacy groups and news media have chronicled the spike in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the past two years. July was the biggest month for ICE arrests during Trump’s second term, according to an NBC Bay Area analysis of records collected by the Data Deportation Project at UC Berkeley and UCLA. In Bay Area cities, arrests were 76% higher this July than in July 2025.
In November, advocacy groups reported that ICE agents had chased a parent who was dropping off a child at an Oakland school, leading to a car crash. Oakland Unified School District officials told KQED that it had received reports of ICE presence in other Oakland neighborhoods.
In January, Mayor Barbara Lee signed two executive orders directing city departments to refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement operations and to establish protocols to protect Oakland from possible deployment of the National Guard and federal immigration enforcement operations.
Laura Rodriguez, a Mexican immigrant from Newark, said Fruitvale festival’s theme addresses decades of contributions by immigrant communities.
“We’ve been supporting this country for so many years, many generations of us. Our children, were born here,” Rodriguez said. “It’s heartfelt to think that we belong to everything we’ve contributed, to say, ‘Here we are, and we’re not leaving.’”
A steady flow of visitors have come to Fruitvale to see La Catrina, said Chris Iglesias, chief executive officer of The Unity Council, adding, “What we’ve seen over this past week is what a connector the Catrina really is.”
At the installation, Julian Castro, the former U.S. Housing and Urban Development secretary and CEO of the Latino Community Foundation, said the next step is to build up the Catrina Resistance Fund.
”We find in this image and in the gathering here today a beautiful statement about joy and celebration, and people of different views and different backgrounds that can live together well,” he said.
The Latino Community Foundation has donated $30,000 to the fund, which The Unity Council launched to support the Latino community in Fruitvale. The plan is to raise $250,000 this year.
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