Originally from the U.S., Caro/Carolina Saldaña, who for years was living in Mexico doing local solidarity work around Mumia Abu-Jamal’s imprisonment, died on Aug. 1, 2025, cause yet to be determined. The following is a tribute to her. 

By Mumia Abu-Jamal

We remember Carolina Saldaña … who helped spread news of our movement here in America to her brothers and sisters in Mexico. But she also brought news to us of struggles of the poor, the oppressed, the Indigenous communities, the working people of Mexico. And of her many stories she shared with us, none is more chilling than her work on Ayotzinapa, where the state, using criminal elements, massacred over 40 students and young people who were trying to be teachers, to educate Indigenous and poor communities in Mexico.

These people were disappeared because of their political beliefs. They were disappeared because they were young activists trying to make a better impact on their communities in Mexico. And Carolina brought those stories to us. She told us not only what happened, but why. And she explained and named many of the students, who to this day, many of their bodies have not been found.

When we first heard about it, we were dumbfounded. We could not believe it, but we had to. The facts were the facts. And we live in an age of neoliberalism where governments can do anything and get away with it.

She was brave, she was courageous. She spoke truth to power, and she told the stories of her community and other communities all around America.

She told Mexicans about the Black liberation struggle, about Black August — the month of resistance, remembered for well over a century in America and the Americas. She told our story of struggle against police violence and prison violence and repression in Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania and throughout America.

Carolina Saldaña will never be forgotten. We remember her, we salute her, we think of her, and we remember her spirit. We thank her for the gift of her presence in this world, in Mexico and in the hearts of many people in Black America. 

With love, not phear, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.