43 families’ lives changed forever on September 26, 2014 when their loved ones – students at an Ayotzinapa teachers college – were kidnapped. A year before that, more than 15 people disappeared from Cocula, but their disappearances didn’t garner international attention. Since about 2007, more than 25,000 have been reported missing in Mexico, and it’s something that has similarly affected families across Latin America. Alfredo Lopez Cassanova’s new exhibit, Huellas de las Memorias, is shining a light on the drug-related casualties in Mexico, as well as Argentina, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.
Suspended from the ceiling of CDMX’s Museo Casa de la Memoria Indomita by a single string are 86 pairs of shoes gently swaying. The shoes belong to family members who have walked countless miles in search for answers. The soles have words etched on them that describe their harrowing experiences after their loved ones went missing, according to Radio Canada International. “These shoes symbolize the fight for the truth and the denunciation against the state-sponsored crime that are disappearances,” Jorge Galvez, director of the museum told ABC News.
Check out some of the moving images and videos below:
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Huellas de las Memorias (Memory Tracks) is on display at CDMX’s Museo Casa de la Memoria Indomita until June 25.