For two decades, Isaura Mendes has brought Santa Claus to greet children as they enjoy Cape Verdean food and Christmas carols — a moment of holiday joy drawn from her efforts to end violence.
On Saturday, dozens of laughing children filled a room at the Vine Street Community Center in Roxbury for the annual “Christmas With Bobby” celebration, named for her son, Bobby, who died at age 23 after he was stabbed in 1995. After Mendes began her work to promote peace and end violence, her son Alexander “Matthew” Mendes was fatally shot in 2006, at the age of 24.
“I was one of God’s angels who was summoned to open people’s eyes about violence, because if we don’t talk about it, it’s going to happen, and people are going to cry,” Mendes told those at the party Saturday.
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Inside the center, children met with Santa while their loved ones took photos. Others ran and played, some with purple and green balloons in hand.
The colors are significant, she said: green for courage and purple for peace.
Maryann Berryman, 52, of Hyde Park, said she came to the party Saturday to support Mendes, whom she praised for her work with survivors of violence.
Berryman’s son, 19-year-old Robert Elvan Harden, was murdered in Dorchester in 2002, just days after her mother died from lung cancer, she said.
Even though it has been years since she lost her son, it feels “just like yesterday,” Berryman said.
“You can never get over losing your loved one,” she said.
And throughout it all, Mendes was there for her.
“It means a lot to me, because she can relate to what I’m going through,” Berryman said. “We support each other . . . and it helps, especially around the holidays.”
Clarissa Turner, 49, said those who lose a loved one to violence continue to grieve every day. Turner lost her 24-year-old son Willie Turner in a 2011 shooting on Bunker Hill Street.
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A celebration like Saturday’s Christmas party brings the community together and is “a beautiful thing,” Turner said.
“We are with other survivors . . . and we comfort and support each other,” she said.
Mendes, 69, founded the Bobby Mendes Peace Legacy 20 years ago on what she calls the “Seven Principles of Peace — unity, justice, forgiveness, courage, hope, faith, and love.
Mendes practices what she preaches — in 2008, she was in the courtroom when a Boston man was convicted of killing her son Bobby. But she forgave him for the crime.
“Forgiveness is the most powerful [act],” she said. “If we don’t forgive one another, we become a slave to the people who have hurt us.”
In June of this year, the man was acquitted in a second trial.
In 2019, there have been 36 homicides in Boston, according to Boston police Officer Stephen McNulty, a department spokesman, compared to 54 at the same time last year.
Since Mendes’s work as an anti-violence activist began, she has helped organize programs to provide support for survivors, including grief counseling, and offer scholarships for local students.
She also works on annual events — such as a walk for peace and a back-to-school barbecue in Uphams Corner, as well as the Christmas celebration.
Mendes visits prisons in the region and speaks to inmates about her experiences.
They call her Mother Mendes, she said.
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“My goal is to continue to bring people together, to learn to love one another,” Mendes said.
John Hilliard can be reached at john.hilliard@globe.com.