Women who lost their daughters and boys who are orphaned by femicides mark this Mother’s Day in Mexico, which is going through a wave of sexist violence with more than 10 murdered a day.
Since the feminicide of her daughter, Nadia Muciño, 20 years ago in the State of Mexico, María Antonia Márquez had to mother her three grandchildren again, and now her great-grandson, while she has not stopped seeking justice for the crime that tore her To his family.
The 63-year-old woman has been embroidering clothing items for more than 40 years to support her home, but after the murder of her daughter she found herself having to double shifts and work at night to support her grandchildren.
“It was too complicated because they witnessed the death of their mother, they saw when their uncle and father killed their mother, and they were both such cowards, because after taking her life they left the children with her,” recalls Márquez in an interview.
From that traumatic episode, the three children developed serious consequences, which were exacerbated by the treatment that the authorities gave them, according to the grandmother.
For example, in 2007, the testimony of Nadia’s eldest children was not enough for the magistrates who dismissed their statements as “fanciful”, which caused one of the feminicides, Nadia’s brother-in-law, to go free.
Mother and great-grandmother
Márquez believes that the lack of psychological care had a strong impact, especially on the youngest daughter, who began leaving home at the age of 13 and left a baby in her care 5 years ago.
However, he highlights with a smile that this child has become his “gasoline”, which drives him to continue fighting for justice.
Like María Antonia, many mothers do not celebrate May 10, as they continue to face a system that protects aggressors and sustains femicidal violence, which claims the lives of around 10 women in the country every day.
“I do not want there to be more orphans who go through what my children went through, who do not spend so many years finding justice. That is why we want to reach the (Inter-American) Court, we hope for a recommendation that can serve the State and achieve change,” exposes.
In the last six years, 16,570 intentional homicides of women and 5,556 femicides have been recorded, according to data from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP).
The National Citizen Observatory against Femicide estimates that in 75% of cases, the victim leaves at least one daughter or son orphaned, with grandmothers mainly taking care of them.
Unrecognized victims
The director of the National Network of Shelters, Wendy Figueroa, warns EFE that since there are no official statistics on this child population, it is more difficult to serve them, since “what is not named does not exist.”
Furthermore, she insists that the children orphaned by this crime are “direct” victims of the crime of which the State is also “complicit and inattentive” since many women victims of feminicide had previously reported it and were not believed.
“These signs could have been identified that are naturalized, that are justified in family violence, which today continues to be an issue in our country that is not classified as a serious crime, and that in the case of the shelters that make up the network, neither Not even 5% of the cases we deal with are sentenced,” he says.
As a psychologist, Figueroa highlights that the emotional impacts of this loss are profound and recalls the case of a girl, then 11 years old, who arrived at one of the shelters along with her grandmother and aunt after the femicide of her mother, and is now 23 years old. years and is a lawyer in another shelter.
“Guaranteeing access to studies, to health, that led her not only to complete the career she chose, but to share herself, process what she had experienced (…) and break with all these patriarchal structures,” she highlights.
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