The scenic project In the first personbased on a deep investigation into victims of violence and forced disappearance in Mexico, seeks to initiate a process of collective memory and denounce against impunity surrounding the more than 110 thousand missing in the country.
This artistic proposal, which gives face and voice to the stories behind the figures, is designed to impact the public and raise awareness about the serious human rights violations in Mexico.
The work It covers a period of 12 yearsfrom the six-year period of Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) to the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024).
The impact of impunity in Mexico
The researcher Mónica Meltis, who leads the project, points out that impunity in Mexico has reached an alarming rate of 99%.
Although this figure has become part of the day to day, Meltis emphasizes that behind each number there are stories of people fighting to find their loved ones.
‘In the first person’ It seeks to transform that “crude” information into an emotionally resonant experience, which humanizes the figures of violence in Mexican territory.
The scenic recital, composed of researchers, journalists, playwrights and relatives of the victims, presents six cases of disappeared and murdered over almost two decades.
The work covers from the six-year term of former President Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) to the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024).
Representative cases of violence in Mexico
Jacobo Dayán, coordinator of the research team, explains that the selection of cases was deliberate. Those who represent the diversity of victims and perpetrators were chosen to reflect the complexity of violence in Mexico.
The work does not focus on a single six -year period, avoiding biases and showing the participation of various actors: from organized crime to the army and the police.
‘In the first person’ It gives voice to activists such as Claudia Uruchurtu and Samir Flores, as well as victims such as Gerson Quevedo, kidnapped and killed, Jennifer Robles, one of the missing young women in the Heaven bar in Mexico City, and Nitza Paola Alvarado, a maquiladora worker disappeared by the army in Chihuahua.
In addition, the case of Nancy Pinedaa Guatemalan migrant which was a victim of organized crime in Tamaulipas.
The power of art to make visible collective memory
Meltis argues that, although cases of disappearances have been widely documented, the staging offers a different way to illuminate these stories and give them a place in collective memory.
For her, these initiatives not only seek to impact the spectators, but also to strengthen the families of the victims, offering them a space where their pain is recognized.
Dayán, on the other hand, explains that reports and journalistic investigations alone have not achieved the desired impact. ‘In the first person’ It represents a new form of complaint, more direct and emotional, which seeks a greater social effect and, at the same time, keep the historical memory of the disappeared alive.
Empathy and memory through art
The project was conceived by the director Mauricio García Lozano and the playwright David Gaitán, who designed a theatrical experience that invites the empathy of the public, avoiding the desensitization that the news about violence often produces.
Gaitán points out that the work seeks to activate the emotional commitment of the viewer, without falling into the exploitation of the tragedy, but as a genuine tribute to the victims.
Throughout the production, key decisions were made to ensure respect for the victims, such as reviewing the scripts with the relatives of the disappeared and ensuring that the entrance to the event was free, without receiving public financing.
The artistic team underlines that the most important thing is to give visibility to the victims and civil society, rather than to the production itself.
The complaint continues
In the first person will be on the billboard until March 30 in the Goethe-Institut from Mexico City.
This staging not only denounces the forced disappearance, but also raises a crucial reflection: Where are the missing and where are those who never looked for them?