Bernardo Campos Santos is searching for his son José Ángel Campos Cantor.
What I desire most in life is the return of my son. As a father, he’s in my blood and mine in his. This corrupt government doesn’t think and it has no heart and it went ahead and just took them. They took them as if they were some sort of animals. But for us, they’re our family members, they’re humans, our children.
Bernabé Abraján Gaspar and Delfina de la Cruz are searching for their son Adán Abraján de la Cruz
I demand that the government returns the 43 students. A mom becomes desperate when her child doesn’t return home. The sun comes up, the sun goes down without an answer because the government won’t give us one. We have no confidence in the government; they’ve offered us money, and they’ve offered us houses, but as a mother, I just want to see my son.
Bertha Nava Martínez, her son Julio César Ramírez Nava, was massacred on the 26th of September 2014.
How can we ever live better again? It’s not possible because we’re all missing a loved one, a family member. In our house we’ll be waiting for him all of our lives while we carry on living. We, as the parents, want legitimate evidence about what happened that night. I need that they come home so they can continue pursuing their dreams.
Carmen Cruz is searching for her son Jorge Aníbal Cruz Mendoza
My child is a relaxed, quiet, dedicated and intelligent boy. He really likes the “jaripeo” (equestrian sport), actually he’s a horseback rider. He loves horses and he has a beautiful white horse. Wherever my son is he can be proud of me because I will look for him until I find him, and that he knows that I love him, I really love him. This week he’ll turn 20 years old. And like I welcomed him into this world on his birthday 20 years ago with so much love, with that same love I continue my search for him.
Celso García is searching for his son Abel García Hernández
My son is only 19 years old. 19 years! Such a young man! He had just arrived here at Ayotzinapa when they had this awful luck and they were taken away. We’ve been here since the 26th of September awaiting his arrival. My son is such a good kid, a straight shooter, a great worker and when he left home he was so excited to start studying and become a teacher. He is so missed.
Ciriaco Vásquez Flores is searching for his son Abelardo Vásquez Peniten
My son, he really likes this school. He wants to advance himself and do better than we did financially and this is why he came to this school. He’d only been here for two months in the school and they were preparing for a protest and they were shot at in Iguala on the 26th of September. Since then we know absolutely nothing, except government lies and cover ups. It’ll be ten months! The government tried to tell us they were found in the garbage dump in Cocula, but that’s another lie. We have nothing.
Clemente Rodríguez Moreno is searching for his son Christian Alfonso Rodríguez Telumbre
What type of government do we have that doesn’t function for anything? Today is my son’s birthday, August 9. And I’m sending him a thousand hugs and a thousand kisses, as do my daughters and my wife. From here we’re celebrating it and wherever he is, may the wind carry my words to him and may he not forget that we’re waiting for him in our house, with open arms.
Lorenzo Francisco Gálvez and Benigna Arzola Cruz are searching for their son Luis Ángel Francisco Arzola
Well, he went to study at Ayotzinapa because he simply wanted to go somewhere in life and be a teacher. He wanted to be able to financially help us here as poor farmers. And that’s when the bad luck hit him and this huge problem we now have on our hands. The government refuses to acknowledge or admit that it was the police who took the 43 students away.
Cristina Bautista Salvador is searching for her son Benjamín Ascencio Bautista
The last time I talked with him was the fifteenth of September, when he came home to visit us. I didn’t know about the disappearances until the 29th when my daughter told me that she’d heard about it in her school. Since then, life changed. He is dearly missed, always happy, dancing and joyful. All this has left a huge void and we can’t wait until we see him and hear him and hug him again.
Damián Arnulfo Marco is searching for his son Felipe Arnulfo Rosas
My son wanted to learn Spanish well. He speaks Mixteco. In the town where we’re from everyone speaks Mixteco; there’s very little Spanish. I learned Spanish because I came to Ayutla to work. But I can’t write or read and my son wanted to learn that, in Spanish. He loves to work in the countryside on the farm. He likes to plant and harvest coffee and bananas, he likes to work really everything.
Here in the basketball court of the school every day I await his arrival, the return of my son. I will wait here, until he appears.Elucadio Ortega Carlos is searching for his son Mauricio Ortega Valerio
The government said that all of our children were dead, calcified, but we think that that’s just not true. There is no scientific proof, and this is why we’re fighting and protesting until we find the 43 students. The movement invites anyone to come join with us in order to put increasing pressure on the Mexican government because it’s currently lying to us and covering up the truth. In order to move past these lies we continue our struggle.
Emiliano Navarrete is searching for his son José Ángel Navarrete González
Since the 26th of September our children, our loved ones were forcibly deprived of their liberty by the state. We demand answers from the government. We demand from this government the most basic guarantees of dignity as a human being.
Epifanio Álvarez Carbajal is searching for his son Jorge Álvarez Nava
My son, he sings and plays guitar beautifully, we’re here waiting for him to come back. The truth is we’ll keep fighting this until the end. We’re not going home until we find him. He went to Ayotzinapa because we didn’t have the resources to send him somewhere else. We’ve travelled around Europe and the US in this fight and we’ll keep it up. It’s embarrassing as Mexicans that we have to go outside of our country for answers, that our government can’t resolve its own problems.
Ernestina Lugardo is searching for her son Israel Jacinto Lugardo
My son is very young. He’s just a little boy starting his life, innocent and excited to start his life as an adult. First he wanted to work as a mechanic. He talked about this for years; it was his dream. But later, he decided that it would be better to do something with which he could help out his community. All of us are dedicated to this movement and we are not going to rest until we have legitimate answers. The government should understand this. We’re not going to let up on this fight.
Estanislao Mendoza and Margarita Zacarías are searching for their son Miguel Ángel Mendoza Zacarías
We’re from a town close by where my son worked as a barber. People always ask for him. Even the little kids in town still ask for him, ask when he’s coming back.
My goal is to find him, hug him along with my wife and his brothers and sisters. I want him to know that we continue, we’re not going to stop looking for him. Until we find out the truth. If they are dead, like the government says, then show us the bodies.Ezequiel Mora Chora is searching for his son Alexander Mora Venancio
They’ve told me that my son is the only one whose body was identified. This brings me great sadness that they tell me that he’s dead… this can’t end just like that.
Francisco Lauro Villegas is searching for his son Magdaleno Rubén Lauro Villegas
The government has offered us houses, political positions, and even direct money, but I won’t sell my child. He doesn’t have a price.
Genoveva Sánchez Peralta is searching for her son Israel Caballero Sánchez
My son has a daughter only eleven months old, and he’s got his wife and we just want him to return home immediately. I urge the government to give him back, we’re desperate from not seeing him for so long.
Hilda Legideño Vargas is searching for her son Jorge Antonio Tizapa Legideño
My son is a happy boy. He loves music, likes to sing and he’s very sociable with everyone. He was very responsible with his little two year old daughter. Our movement of parents is spreading the word about what happened and about all of the problems that México suffers. The government continues to violate the human rights of indigenous peoples, the poor and now even students. When you’re poor you always think at least you have your family. But here in México, if you’re poor, they take that from you too.
Joaquina García Velásquez is searching for her son Martín Getsemany Sánchez García
My son only wanted to do better for himself and have a life that was better than how he grew up. My son was dedicated to helping his father on the farm. In his free time he loves to play baseball. He wasn’t a delinquent like the government keeps saying. He is only 20 years old with his dreams of being a teacher.
Juan Colón is searching for his son Christian Tomás Colón Garnica
My son is very noble, a great worker and very studious. I remember how impressed I was when he studied so late into the night. We’re from a family with very little resources and these teacher’s colleges are the only form that these young men can get ahead. We really don’t know what we’re going to do if they’re not alive. That would be too much for my family and I to take.
Luciano Pablo Baranda is searching for his son Marcial Pablo Baranda
We are all poor campesinos and because of that we’re not appreciated. This is why we have to go to other countries to demand justice. We continue in caravans for the North and the South and even internationally in order to assure that the government gives us some answers and so they turn over our children alive.
Macedonia Torres is searching for her son José Luis Luna Torres
My son is all that I have in this life. I pray every day and every night that he comes home…. he’s all that I have. I pray every day and every night that he comes back home. He’s all I have, nothing more.
Brígida Olivares is searching for her grandson Antonio Hernández Maestro
My son loves to play soccer, and he loves school since he was a little boy. He always went to school with his brother. This is what I want, that the government gives them back to us because we’re desperate. We’re not tired and we won’t give up but we’re desperate, it’s been so long since we’ve laid our eyes on them.
Margarito Ramírez Rodríguez is searching for his son Carlos Iván Ramírez Villareal
Since the day of the 26th and 27th of September we have been fighting the government because we know it was them that took them away, local up to Federal governments. My son is 19 years old. He will turn 20 in October. He wasn’t a delinquent as the government call them, he didn’t have any vice at all, he was dedicated to his studies.
Margarito Guerrero is searching for his son Jhosivani Guerrero de la Cruz
These are young lives we’re talking about here. If anyone thinks that we’re going to stop our fight for justice, they’re wrong. Imagine if the children disappeared were children of the government figures who don’t want to hear from us? They’d be found in two days. But for us and our children, children of poor farmers, almost ten months and all we have from the government is pure lies and no news of what happened to our children.
María de los Ángeles Molina searches for her son Marco Antonio González Molina
He wanted to go to that school badly and I didn’t want him to. I had a premonition something bad was going to happen there. But he said he wanted to go to study, how can a mom say no to that? Initially he wanted to study to be a doctor, but for a poor person, how can that ever be possible? So, he decided to be a teacher and now, well we all know about what happened now.
María Concepción Tlatempa Colchero searches for her son Jesús Jovani Rodríguez Tlatempa
The police and the military were all involved in disappearing our children and taking them away. From that moment forward we know nothing, how they are, where they are, we know nothing. We don’t know if they’re eating well, if they even eat or not. But from here we’re saying to the government that we will never stop searching for them.
María de Jesús Tlatempa y Cornelio Bartolo Victoriano are searching for their son José Eduardo Bartelo Tlatempa
Unfortunately in 2014 I was told that I have cancer. And my son was very sad and preoccupied for his mother because with little money its difficult to pay for the trips to Acapulco for my treatments. And we never had enough to pay for his further studies, so that was how he ended up studying at Ayotzinapa. We will not rest or give up an inch in this great fight for justice against the Mexican government.
Mario César González is searching for his son César Manuel González Hernández
From the moment we got the phone call with the news, we’ve been fighting for our children, the most fundamental thing we have in this life. People have asked us if we’re scared that we may lose our lives but you lose part of your life when something so ugly, so cruel and so awful happens to your child. I don’t know where this movement will take us or its end, but I do know it’s not going to be easy to accept that I’ve lost my son, and I will keep on fighting for his life because I love him so dearly.
Maximino Hernández Cruz is searching for his son Carlos Lorenzo Hernández Muñoz
Enrique Peña Nieto says that we need to get over the pain, but that’s ridiculous. There’s no way we’ll get over this until they present to us alive our 43 sons and the government punishes those responsible. We will not rest until then. The whole country and the world is behind us!
Metodia Carrillo Lino is searching for her son Luis Ángel Abarca Carrillo
The government tells us all sorts of lies and we demand that the government tells us where they are, or where the bodies are, or where they murdered them. The government should give us some evidence and not only lies. That’s what the government is- an excellent liar, this goddamned government.
Minerva Bello Guerrero is searching for her son Everardo Rodríguez Bello
Well, what can I say. He is dearly missed, by everyone in the family. We want the government to give him back, let him come home. He’s only 20 years old.
Nati de la Cruz is searching for her son Emiliano Alen Gaspar de la Cruz
My Emiliano spent his whole life in the countryside working on the farm and he decided to study. So, I just want him back, we want the government to turn them over to us. This is what we want. And, they’re not delinquents like the government likes to say.
Nicanora García is searching for her son Saúl Bruno García
Its painful when I think about him. I cry every night and day. I want the government to just give him back already. The torture and the desperation that we suffer for our children doesn’t have a name horrible enough to express it.
Oliveria Parral Rosa is searching for her two sons Jorge Luis González Parral and Dorian González Parral
Where are they? My two sons left telling me “We’re going to study there mom, in this economy there’s not much more we can do.” I’ve now regretted thousands of times for having sent my sons there. The goddamned awful bad government is saying that they were delinquents. My sons were not delinquents.
Oscar Ortiz Serafín is searching for his son Cutberto Ortiz Ramos
We give thanks to all of the people that are supporting us, that are in solidarity with us and our movement. They were only young boys, young men that wanted to simply get ahead some in life. And this government grabbed them like they were some sort of prisoners, some sort of criminals.
Rafael López is searching for his son Julio César López Patolzin
My son is a poor farmer, just like me. He always came out here with me to the farm to plant seeds and harvest the crops. He came here to plant and work the farm in the fresh air his whole life.
When I come here, since they took him away, I listen to the silence and the wind in the trees, rustling the leaves and I think about him. I can almost feel his presence here with me and I can’t think of anything else… only that he is not here with me. Its a strong feeling of loss that he’s not here and it hurts powerfully.Santa Cruz Castro is searching for his son Leonel Castro Abarca
My son is a great person, very noble, sincere and concerned about the welfare of others. This is why he wanted to study at Ayotzinapa and now we’re in this situation. And, we’re not going to rest, we’re going to continue in this fight, in this battle for justice and at very least, at a minimum until we have some sort of legitimate answers about what happened.
Nardo Flores Vásquez is searching for his son Bernardo Flores Alcaráz
My son decided to leave the community to get ahead in life and at the same time, as a teacher, help out others that could use a little help. In this case he was thinking about the youth of the poorest towns in Guerrerro where the children are marginalized and don’t receive the education they deserve as humans. This is his great interest in life: to do his part to help those that need help.
Yolanda González Mendoza is searching for her son Jonás Trujillo González
I’m from Ticuí, in the municipality of Atoyac de Álvarez. My son loves to work on the farm, just like his father does, and he works often as a construction worker and carpenter. If we’d have known this was going to happen to him we wouldn’t have sent him there.
Pablo Hernández Morales is searching for his son Miguel Ángel Hernández Martínez
My boy is only 26 years old. He’s a noble and studious young man. He loves to dance in the traditional dances of the region here, especially one that’s called, “The Dance of the Tlacoleros.” He also loved getting dressed up as a Charro (traditional cowboy garb) from this region in Guerrerro. He dedicated lots of time to the virgins, of Christmas and Guadalupe. I want to see him come back home.
On the night of September 26th 2014 forty three children, with an average age of 19 years, were disappeared by local and federal police in Iguala Mexico. The group of students were from some of Mexico’s most destitute regions and were studying to be teachers in the rural communities from which they came.
The Peña Nieto administration hoped the country would forget the atrocity and move on; yet, the case has become an international scandal and an embarrassment for the president and for Mexico. The official story cynically put forth by the government has been determined by American Commission on Human Rights to be physically impossible. In addition the story was wrought with lies, cover ups and confessions obtained through torture. When this committee began to ask difficult questions, or request access to military personnel and prisoners their request were denied. The government then began a smear campaign against both the committee and its members through Mexican media outlets.
The fight for justice continues for the parents of the 43 children who have vowed to fight for the return of their children or at least legitimate evidence concerning their actual fate. Shortly before the first anniversary of this terrible event I sat with at least one of the parents of each student to take their portraits and hear them speak about the internationally recognised movement they’ve begun to obtain the most basic justice.
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