'Doing something right by Tess': Faith Mata continues to honor sister through her work

Struggling to find her place in the world, Faith Mata, a recent college graduate, was navigating the stresses of finding a job and was in a fight to keep her sister's memory alive.

Mata's sister, Tess, was a 10-year-old fourth grader who was gunned down at Uvalde's Robb Elementary School two years ago, in what became the state's deadliest school mass shooting. The 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two adults on May 24, 2022.

“I honestly couldn’t tell you how I’m doing,” Mata said. “No one told me that once you graduate college, it’s that hard sometimes. Being rejected from job positions — crying — trying to figure out if what I'm really doing in life is what I should be doing, and then also feeling like you're letting your sister down."

Mata, who graduated in May 2023 from Texas State University with a bachelor's degree in psychology and a minor in criminal justice, is dedicating herself to advocating for safer gun laws and sharing Tess’ story through her work.

Mata recently moved to Austin and is adjusting to a new place, but she's still coping with her sister's absence as she navigates adult life.

Mata said she held a congressional internship with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., which helped her network before landing a job in Austin.

“I worked with (U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, D-Austin), and I did get to make a lot of network connections and share Tess’ story,” Mata said. “Coming back home, I was able to use those network connections and keep them with me to share things I care about, like gun violence prevention.”

Mata is now working as an assistant to the section director for oversight and accountability at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

“It’s a door opening for me,” Mata said. “Of course, we dream of getting right into that main position, but I figured out that’s not how the real world works after graduating from college. So, after applying and lots of tears, I finally got the position.”

While Mata said she believes the position will get her to where she needs to be in the future, Mata said she sometimes feels guilty about how much time she spends being an everyday adult versus how much time she spends focusing on Tess.

“My parents have taken on advocating a lot more, and sometimes I hate that I don’t get to do it as often as I would want to,” Mata said. “I feel like I was doing something right by Tess, by big sisters, by the kids who were in the classroom, the teachers. I’m just trying to find a way to get to that point in my life where what I’m doing with my future work will matter, and it will matter to Tess as well.”

The Mata family continues to co-run the Lives Robbed nonprofit, a group dedicated to reducing gun violence; participate in family-led talks and panel discussions about gun violence prevention; and attend government meetings to advocate for gun restrictions.

Some people in Uvalde are unhappy about the persistence of the family's fight for the cause and want them to “get over their grief,” Mata said.

“I'm assuming crosses and balloons and flowers are bothersome, but they shouldn’t have an opinion because they didn’t lose anyone,” Mata said.

The Uvalde Town Square memorials are reminders of the tragedy for everyone, but even more so for the families who suffered the loss. The memorials act as ways for the families to keep their loved ones’ memories alive as time passes.

“If it’s a reminder to you every day of May 24, could you imagine how much of a reminder it is to me, my parents, all the other families?” Mata said.

“Every time we walk into our homes, there's someone missing at our dining room table. We pass by the bedroom they used to sleep in. We take care of their pets for them now.”

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Faith Mata continues to honor Uvalde shooting victim through her work