No están solas is a multidisciplinary project from Columbia University with the objective of offering a set of pedagogical and informative tools to support the collective response to widespread disappearance in Mexico and the work of collectives and family members engaged in the search.
We seek to offer a productive, collaborative and practical space to socialize information, offer critical analysis, and construct collective memory.
We aim to respond to a pressing need for cross-border coordination between organizations, knowledge-producing institutions, and the people searching for the disappeared. ↓
In Mexico official numbers of missing persons have surpassed 100,000, most of which having occurred since the beginning of the war against drug cartels in 2006. The inaction and neglect of authorities, bureaucratic stagnation and impunity have led families to take matters into their own hands to search for and succeed in finding their loved ones.
This tragic reality is unfolding in a context of unrelenting violence in a country that is both a destination and passage for people on the move.
Throughout Mexico and in neighboring countries, family members, mainly women, have organized themselves into collectives, mainly composed of women, and are developing search methods, advocating for institutional changes and supporting those facing disappearance, to find those who have disappeared, not just their own loved ones.
These searchers, or buscadoras, have become the main agents of change, bringing their resilience, along with their experience and knowledge around disappearance and searching, to the collective movement in México.
60 interviews with mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, wives, daughters, fathers, brothers and sons from 12 different states in Mexico who are searching for their missing loved ones. A personal compilation of experiences before and after cases of disappearance, the meaning of searching, and the transformation of fear into strength and the hope to find those who are missing.
Read moreA selection of literature, journalistic work, academic analysis, poetry, films, multimedia projects, which serves as an introduction to the context of disappearance and the search in Mexico.
A compilation tools and documents for searching, as well as voices from the search, including: laws, government protocols, basic guides, testimonies and stories of the search that is carried out by civil society organizations and international agencies working hand in hand with family members.
A database with contact information for collectives, civil society organizations, international organizations and government institutions, to facilitate connection, communication and access to information.