When Dilmer “Loba” Lovos Mendez learned about the protests inside the Dilley Detention Center in Texas, they were not surprised. She began researching hunger strikes in El Centro that happened in 1985 with about 300 participants. If one person does three hunger strikes, then that is already three protests at one detention center in one year. “We conducted these hunger strikes to stand up for our rights, especially with the food and the medical services,” Lovos Mendez said. Mora Chung said La Resistencia has documented about a dozen hunger strikes in the Tacoma Northwest Detention Center every year of its 12-year existence.