Most people celebrate the holidays with family, however some family reunions are different than others. Junior Mayra Yundt-Pacheco is in Mexico to visit family over break instead of staying in the United States.

“My entire mom’s side lives down there,” Yundt-Pacheco said. “I have nine direct cousins and like 47 other weirdly related cousins and aunts.”

While Yundt-Pacheco is with her big family, she will also be in one of the biggest hot spots in North America.

“We are going to Mexico City to be with family mainly, but recently there has been a lot of riots going on over the 43 students that were killed by one of the mayors in Mexico,” Yundt-Pacheco said. “They were handed over to the drug cartel and they were shot and burned, so now there is a lot of riots and burning buildings. They tried to burn down the national palace. That is in Mexico City right where we are going and the house that we have there is in the middle of all of this.”

The riots began when unarmed citizens were attacked.

“Basically there are schools for underprivileged people that aren’t the best of schools and try to keep the peace in Mexico,” senior Paola Davis said. “What the government did is the teachers were in a caravan headed to Mexico City and were stopped by the police. All of a sudden they just started shooting the bus and no one knew what was going on because they were unarmed. They shot the bus and took 43 kids.”

While in Mexico, Yundt-Pacheco hopes to use her photography skills to capture the situation.

“I am going down there and am going to see if I can get any pictures of the riots and the people,” Yundt-Pacheco said. “Because they need the public support there isn’t really much of a danger, except if the police showed up. In that case, just run really fast. There is a lot of people; I won’t be alone.”

Even though protesters are not trying to harm anyone, some students on campus  think the danger of it outweighs going to the riots.

“I don’t think its a good idea,” freshman Diana Angeles said. “They’re not trying to kill people but it’s how Mexico is. They are really harsh and don’t want to kill people but it is on accident and it is really crazy and dangerous to go.”

Although it may be dangerous, Yundt-Pacheco still hopes to capture a part of Mexican history.

“I am pretty worried, but I am also excited to get some raw photography of something that could possibly have a really big effect on Mexico’s history,” Yundt-Pacheco said. “It is cool to be a part of that.”