For those looking for Mexico’s missing, Mother’s Day only brings sadness

Mothers whose children have been kidnapped or are missing amid the widespread violence caused by cartels have little to rejoice about.

She remembers her last Mother’s Day as if it were yesterday. Rosa Valdés Vázquez had gone to the supermarket on a morning in May of 2020. When she came back, her daughter Piedad was there to greet her with flowers, a cake, and a red-painted wooden heart.

Piedad, who had taken the day off work, joined her two sisters in singing the customary birthday song from Mexico, Las Maanitas, before they started to work preparing lunch for their mother. They went to the movies and spent the afternoon in the city centre as a group of four.

Valdés recently stated in an interview, “It’s something you can’t forget.” Every day, her happiness gave us life.

A few months later, Piedad was abducted by unidentified intruders after being invited to a pool party with a friend. Her friend’s mother and younger brother both died after being shot. Piedad, her buddy, and three more people had disappeared.

Mother’s Day won’t exist for Valdés until she comes home, or until I at least know where she is. It’s a day of sorrow and melancholy recollections. Nothing to rejoice about.

Mother’s Day, observed in Mexico on May 10, has long been regarded as one of the most significant holidays in the nation. Florists are known to have their highest sales of the year on Mother’s Day, and people are known to hire mariachi bands to serenade their mothers in the early morning hours.

However, in recent years, as cartel-driven violence has gripped the country, the holiday has assumed a more ominous tone. According to government statistics, more than 100,000 persons have vanished in Mexico since 1964, leaving tens of thousands of mothers across the nation without their children.

Many take matters into their own hands and look for evidence of corpses by digging in fields or scouring the streets. Despite the fact that Piedad has yet to be located, Valdés, a member of a group of moms, has made two such gruesome discoveries.

At least someone has located their family member, she said. “At least someone can get some sleep.”

Women from all around the country are scheduled to march in the streets on Wednesday to seek justice for their lost relatives. Thousands of women may perhaps participate.

Mother of four missing kids and founder of a nationwide network of collectives looking for the missing, Mara Herrera Magdaleno, declared: “The mothers of the disappeared have absolutely nothing to celebrate.” We feel ignored, thus today is one of agony, pain, and outrage.

The date serves as a double reminder of atrocity for Luca de los ngeles Daz Genao, who established a mother’s collective in eastern Veracruz state. First, it serves as a reminder for her own son, who has been missing for almost ten years, who disappeared.

A map that directed them to a property with more than 150 hidden graves was part of an anonymous tip the group got on Mother’s Day of 2016. They eventually found close to 300 corpses.

Daz sadly remarked, “It was referred to as a’macabre gift’.”

Since 2021, six mothers who lead the hunt for the missing have been slain across the nation. This increased brutality has recently been observed in the movement of mothers who lead the search for the missing.

The most recent, Teresa Magueyal, was assassinated last week, making it the second murder of this kind to occur in Guanajuato in less than six months.

She was a really joyful person, according to Valdés, a member of the search team “A Promise to be Kept” that Magueyal also volunteered with. She never failed to lift our spirits.

Like every Tuesday, Magueyal woke up early and sent her normal good morning text to Valdés and the other mothers. She was fatally murdered by two intruders on motorcycles hours later as she was leaving her home on a bicycle, according to local media accounts.

Widespread condemnation of her death has been expressed, notably by the UN.

Jess Pea Palacios, the deputy high commissioner for human rights of the United Nations in Mexico, released a statement saying, “It is shocking to receive the news of another searching mother murdered in Guanajuato.” “Families deserve protection and justice, not death or the unfortunate circumstance of passing away without knowing where their loved one is,” the statement reads.

One of the most difficult aspects of Valdés’ coworker’s death has been this last.

It’s a different type of love, she added, to consider the possibility that one day we might pass away from this planet without knowing anything about our relatives. This is truer for moms. “To think that it could have happened to any one of us, that it could still happen to any one of us.”

However, risk is a constant for many mothers who are searching for their lost children and spend hours in the scorching sun seeking for hidden graves that might contain their remains. Many of these women operate in areas controlled by violent cartels, and they frequently receive death threats.

One of the most violent states in Mexico, Sinaloa, is led by Mara Isabel Cruz Bernal, who oversees a search collective of about 1,000 women. According to Cruz, the group has discovered close to 500 bodies and more than 18,000 pieces of burned bone.

According to her, only the bones of roughly eight people have been positively recognised, a problem that occurs frequently in Mexico where thousands of bodies remain unidentified, many of them resting in public mortuaries.

Cruz declared, “The government isn’t doing its job.”

Cruz’s profession, however, has frequently put her in danger because she is looking for dead corpses in a state that is a stronghold for the Sinaloa cartel. She has received seven death threats and has escaped two attempted kidnappings. Last week, she started noticing young guys outside her house making calls every time she entered or left—lookouts for the cartel, she thinks.

Being imprisoned in your own house is dreadful, she added.

Cruz raised the warning on Sunday in accordance with a protection measure for human rights activists: the police responded, apprehending one of the alleged lookouts on Monday morning – the surveillance has temporarily ceased.

She is reminded that nobody is safe by the deaths of so many of her coworkers.

All of us mothers who search are affected, Cruz added. “I feel like they’re warning us that we might be the next.”