State of emergency

Wednesday, 19 December 2018 14:55 Written by MUMA

POINTS OF PAIN AND RESILIENCE IN MEXICO CITY

NOVEMBER 11-14, 2018

State of Emergency was a project coordinated by Lorena Wolffer (Mexico) in collaboration with María Laura Rosa (Argentina) and Jennifer Tyburczy (USA) for the Centro Nacional de las Artes (National Center for the Arts) and the Centro de Cultura Digital (Digital Culture Center) centered on the violent reality that we, cis and trans women, live in Mexico City and the rest of the country, where our lives and bodies are now disposable. Conceived on a femicide and transfemicide cartography of the city (that included two government agencies responsible for prosecuting and eradicating said violence), State of Emergency was carried out on four sites that we sought to re-signify as spaces of resilience and political resistance. Each was intervened by an artist or collective and also housed a public living room where we discussed the events that took place there to then propose specific actions aimed at transforming our reality and guaranteeing non-repetition. Recognizing and celebrating our differences, we looked to dismantle all forms of violence—inside our institutions, communities, movements, families, schools, and churches as well as within ourselves—, while denouncing the corruption, impunity, inactions, and silences. We all have the right to a life worth living. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow, not one woman less, not one woman more! We want ourselves alive!



TESTIMONIOS

Energy, intensity, memory that survives. Alessa was born in Tabasco on May 20, 1988, that is where she took her first steps, among colorful grasses and great rivers where she learned from profoundness. She continued her journey in that colorful place until she was 19 years old, when she decided to lay roots in Mexico City. Here she was born again because she never died, the transfemicide state took her on October 13, 2016 at age 28 when she was found at the Hotel Caleta with signs of strangulation and physical violence. Her transfemicide remains unpunished and those responsible without a name. She was a human rights defender for trans* sex workers, a feminist whore proud of her work, and her political commitment was linked to a critique of Mexican public politics. Her singing has not stopped, she lives in us! Justice for Alessa!
 
Lia García

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Lesvy my daughter, a young girl like so many who love life, who have plans, dreams, and challenges, was murdered in Ciudad Universitaria (University City) at dawn on May 3, 2017 by her boyfriend Jorge Luis González Hernández, who strangled her in a telephone booth, tying a telephone cord to her neck and pulling on it. Her lifeless body presented infamous injuries, basically on the face, and it was also demonstrated that there was evidence of previous violence. There has been no justice for Lesvy: she was blamed for her own death from the beginning, assuming suicide as a proven fact, and she was revictimized when the femicide’s saying was received as an absolute truth. An Enough! was necessary, as well as hundreds of public demands for justice voiced by our civil society, led mainly by young feminist women, who have achieved that the crime is investigated as aggravated femicide. To them, to you, to all those who believed in a body, a feminine being; hurt, abused, violated ... our love and gratitude for accompanying us in this search for truth and justice. Not one woman more, never again!
 
Araceli Osorio Martínez, madre de Lesvy Berlín.

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I met Paola when she arrived in Mexico City, she was from Chiapas and came here because she suffered gender violence from her family; when her parents abandoned her, she decided to assume her identity as a woman and migrated here. She was hooked on alcohol because of everything she was dragging and I thought it easy to tell her to go work at Puente de Alvarado, where they have me as their leader. On September 30, 2016 the subject’s car arrived, I declined but Paola crossed a few words with him and then told us "I'm going to work". She got in the car, which then advanced about twenty meters when she started yelling for me. I ran to the car and saw how he shot her at point-blank range, three bullets, and then he aimed at me but the gun got jammed. He was arrested with the gun still in his hand but they let him go seven hours later. We are in search of a new arrest warrant, although it was passed eight days after letting him go free, they have not been able to capture it. The law enforcement system is badly damaged, there are no attention protocols for hate crimes in this city, there is no adequate attention for direct or indirect victims or simply for witnesses.
 
Kenya Cuevas
Read 1576 times Last modified on Wednesday, 19 December 2018 14:57