The Disappearance of Ayotzinapa Students has Transformed Protesting in Mexico Juliana Jimenez Jaramillo and Lorena Marron - Slate
go to original September 28, 2015

¿Dónde Están? (Where are they?) A tribute to Mexico’s disappeared amidst demands for the truth (Jan Nimmo)

The events surrounding Ayotzinapa made the link between the narcogangs and the government, which had seemed obvious but vague until then, impossible to ignore. They shocked the Mexican population and motivated thousands to take to the streets in protest. But after Ayotzinapa, protests alone could not do what art does: make the invisible visible. Protests for Ayotzinapa needed to evoke, narrate, and create in order to recreate what was now missing and to materialize an unprecedented level of rage, pain, and discontent.

Intertwining art and activism is a strong Mexican tradition, ranging from the propagandistic muralism of the 1930s to the art collectives of the 1970s and 1980s, which used their work as political strategies in the service of popular movements.

...After the disappearance of the Ayotzinapa students, banners and graffiti again populated the streets of Mexico as it did in ’68. Similarly, in an extension of the cities’ walls, hashtags like “#TodosSomosAyotzinapa” (#WeAreAllAyotzinapa) and “#NosFaltan43” (#WeAreMissing43) took over social media. The most striking of these was “#FueelEstado” (#ItWastheState), because it not only established the responsibility of the state but shattered the myth that the government and the narcogangs worked independently from each other.

Read the rest at Slate

Related: Against Odds, Seeking Hope for Mexican Students Who Vanished a Year Ago (The New York Times)

Related: One Year Later, Mexico City Refuses to Let Memory of the 43 Missing Students Die (Quartz)

Related: Ayotzinapa: Necropolitics and the Media as Judge and Jury (teleSUR)

Related: Ayotzinapa disappearances: Peña Nieto’s Ultimate Test (Amnesty Internationa)

Related: Mexico One Year After the Kidnapping: 'I Saw It All' (Al Jazeera)

Related: When Will the 43 Disappeared Mexico Students Find Justice? (The Guardian)

Related: Relatives of 43 Missing Students in Mexico Seek Answers One Year Later (The Los Angeles Times)

Related: Ayotzinapa US Solidarity: Defying Borders, Reclaiming Identity (teleSUR)

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