Ralliers banged cutlery against pots while chanting and singing at a Cacerolazo protest for Gaza Sunday at the Jones House Cultural Center.
Cacerolazo is derived from the Spanish word “cacerola,” meaning pan or saucepan, and describes a type of rally where ralliers make noise with pots, pans and kitchen utensils to call for attention.
Around 40 students, faculty and community members were in attendance at the rally and sat on the steps leading up from King Street to the Jones House.
The protest began with several call-and-response chants including “free free Palestine,” “stop the occupation” and “Gaza, Gaza don’t you cry.” The ralliers chanted in rhythm and hit their pots and pans to keep tempo.
The ralliers also sang Adrienne Maree Brown’s “Ceasefire.” The song repeats the phrase, “we breathe together,” before ending the verse with “stop the occupation.” Each verse has a different repeated phrase: “we march together,” “we grieve together” and “we strike together.”
The event was organized by High Country Peace and Justice, a grassroots organization in Boone focusing on action and education surrounding issues of peace, justice and environmentalism, according to their Facebook.
Gregory Reck, former professor of anthropology at App State and an original founder of HCPJ, said the organization was revitalized after several years of inaction because of the attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. Reck said they started holding events to educate people, and they continue to hold rallies to remind people the situation in Palestine is ongoing.
“Just to keep people aware that Gaza is a central issue, because we’re being confronted by so many problems created by the present administration, people have lost sight of Gaza,” Reck said.
One rallier, graduate geography student Analee Monrreal, said she chose to attend because it’s good to bring awareness to the issue and more people need to know about it.
“There’s clearly a genocide that’s currently happening, and it has been an ongoing genocide for several years, and to care about human rights is to care about what’s going on in Palestine,” she said.
HCPJ intends to possibly make the rally a weekly event, Reck said, because “people are ignoring Gaza and they’ve forgotten them.”
