‘We Have to Not be Afraid': Mourners Gather at House of Spain

More than 100 people lit candles in Balboa Park Saturday to pay tribute to the victims of Thursday’s terror attack in Barcelona.

“We have to not to be afraid, and [we have to] get out,” Jesus Benayas, the president of the House of Spain in Balboa Park told NBC 7 Saturday night. “To me, that is part of this event, for people to get out of their homes and come and reunite, and for these terrorists for these people to see we are not afraid."

The event honored the lives lost in Barcelona after a van drove into the crowded and touristy street of Las Ramblas last week, killing 13 people. An American was among the dead.

A Mexican Aztec Dancing Group performed and mourned the loss of those killed and the more than 100 injured in the attack.

The Honorary Consul of Spain in San Diego, Maria Angeles-O'donel Olsen, stressed that fear and pain would not divide Spanish people. It will, in fact, do the opposite, she said. 

Olsen said dozens of the people hurt in the attack were tourists, and the group that came together in Balboa Park represents that diversity and unity.

“I think it is a way of saying, yes, this terrible thing happened, but we are together, we are united,” she said. “And nobody is going to take that from us."

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