The Mexican Disappeared

I’ve just finished listening to the True Spies podcast episodes about the mother who sought to avenge her daughter’s killing by the Mexican cartels.

It’s both an appalling and riveting story, and one I became aware of in 2017, when I was tasked by Aberystwyth University’s InterPol department to capture their events covering the disappearances of over 110,000 people in Mexico.

The ‘Footprints of Memory’ exhibition (and musical performances) featured “… the shoes of mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, wives and husbands, who continue the long journey in the search of their loved ones. 

“The shoes have been donated from all over Mexico and beyond, by the relatives of the disappeared.  They have been worn down as they have walked the country, demanding to know the whereabouts of their loved ones. 

“The soles of these shoes, which have been to Ministries and mass graves, on marches and to meetings, have been engraved in Mexico City with messages to represent their search.

Most moving was the symposium, ‘Absence, Presence, Embodiment’, where artists, academics and others got to hear directly from campaigners in Mexico, seeking for justice for their lost family.