Mexican Murals - Worsening Situation For Women

Not far from where I live, in the neighborhood of San Miguel Chapultepec (the exact location is the corner of Molinos del Camo and Francisco Fagoaga just before it runs into Avenida Constityentes), there is a mural that has been up for several years. The visual image is not particularly spectacular, being rather modest in size and reserved in its range of colors.

Its message, however, is more than clear, sending a shiver down the spine if you stop and think about it. This is no abstract art, with curious symbolism, dependent on the viewer's interpretation. Instead, there is an objective fact being communicated:

Every Day Six Women Die as a Result of Gender Violence

The image painted in black, white, and gray tones, shows a woman standing next to the outlines of six bodies, painted on the ground like in a crime scene investigation. On her shirt she's wearing the portrait of one of the victims, as she may be wondering whether she is next to be killed.

Next to this image, the greatest part of the mural is painted plain yellow, with the lettering informing us of this sad statistic. Above and below, we learn that this wall was dedicated by ParedesVsCensura to share this information. The signature on the right side tells us that the artist who painted this mural is Ale R Antillón, on whose Twitter profile the same mural is used for background. The year she painted this was 2015.

Fast Forward to Now: The Only Thing That Has Changed is the Number

Only six blocks further, on the Diagonal Patriotismo, there is another, very similar mural, painted only this year. It shows the face of a woman, this time a certain person, named María Jesús Jaimes Zamudio. She was a nineteen year old girl, who died as a result of being thrown out of the window of her own apartment, as we can learn from the artist's Instagram page. On the two sides of her portrait the word read NI UNA MÁS that is "NOT ONE MORE".

Further out on the two sides of the picture, as well as on the sidewalk below it, the updated statistic can be read: In Mexico Nine Women Are Assassinated Every Day. That means, in the last four years, since 2015 when the first mural was painted, the rate of feminicide has increased by 50%!!! Let's stop for a second to consider this horrible development.

The artist behind this second mural is Geurch Stencil whose Instagram page show us that he has created a number of similar murals, remembering the victims of feminicide.