Ayotzinapa Graduate: I'd Be a Dishwasher in US if Not for This School Al Jazeera
go to original February 21, 2015

In the months since dozens of students were attacked and disappeared by local police and cartel members in the Mexican city of Iguala, Guerrero, the school the boys attended has become a base for the search being carried out by their parents and surviving classmates.

The Raúl Isidro Burgos Normal School of Ayotzinapa is part of a network known as the normales. Students - or ‘normalistas’ - come from Mexico’s most impoverished areas and are trained to become teachers in rural communities.

The disappearance of the students is only one of many tragedies experienced by the school. Three years ago, two students were shot and killed by police during a demonstration. Fault Lines spoke to Oscar Arias, a graduate of Ayotzinapa, at his old school this past December just prior to a march commemorating the two who were slain in 2011, as well as this past September’s attack.

Arias talked with us about what Ayotzinapa stands for, why its ideals frequently clash with the Mexican government and what, in addition to families’ loved ones, was lost when the students disappeared. An edited version of the conversation follows.

Read an edited version of the conversation on Al Jazeera

In "Mexico’s Disappeared," Fault Lines unravels the years of impunity and the thousands of missing people in Mexico that led up to the disappearance of 43 students. The film airs on Monday, February 23, at 10 pm Eastern time/7 pm Pacific on Al Jazeera America. Click here to find Al Jazeera in your area.

Photo: Victor Tadashi Suárez/Al Jazeera America

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