Social Issues

‘These Faces You See:’ Photo exhibition honors struggle of mothers longing for missing Mexicans

Mexico City, Aug 27 (EFE).- A photo exhibition in Mexico City was opened Friday to honor the struggle of Mexican mothers longing to see their disappeared sons swept away in waves of violence in the country.

The exhibition was thrown open days before the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances observed on Aug.30.

Mexican Undersecretary of Human Rights, Alejandro Encinas, the exhibition was to throw light on the problem not only to give mere visibility to it.

“We are talking about human beings, not numbers, We want to vindicate their memory and dignify the struggle,” said Encinas at the inauguration event.

The display, in the former presidential palace of Los Pinos, includes portraits, group images, and objects like shovels, hats, and sieves that mothers use to search for their missing sons.

The organizers and the families of the victims of enforced disappearances agreed that it was one of the darkest scourges in Mexico.

More than 90,000 people disappeared in Mexico since 1964 when groups began keeping the record.

Encinas said the mothers have for years been searching for their missing sons alone.

“Previous governments tried to hide to minify the tragedy. But we have known from the first day the magnitude of the problem,” Encinas said.

The mothers present agreed with him, although they insisted on not being “self-indulgent.”

They vowed to continue demanding that the authorities find their children, render justice, and guarantee no person would be forced into the disappearance.

“When someone is disappeared, a family is mutilated. Fear paralyzes us. We have transformed it into courage to search for all those we long for,” said Araceli Salcedo.

Her son Fernanda Rubíwho disappeared in September 2012.

“This is worse than the death. The family does not live and the missing person does not die completely,” Valentina Peralta said.

The authorities insisted on the importance of the mothers of the disappeared, whose work has taken more prominence in recent years and with whom the current government has begun to work more closely.

“We want to acknowledge their daily struggle, remember that missing persons are missing from all of us. All of society has to be outraged,” said Karla Quintana, head of the National Search Commission. EFE

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