Video of the Day: New Video Calls For ¡Ni Una Mas! (Not one More) Femicide in Mexico

According to several women’s organizations, 75 women “disappeared” and were murdered in Ciudad Juarez in 2017 alone. After hearing these numbers and learning that femicides were on the rise in Ciudad Juarez (which is notorious for its history of violence against women), members of Las Almas Collective created ¡Ni Una Mas!, a video that denounces gender-based violence and calls for “justicia y dignidad” for victims.

Las Almas Collective is a group of Latina creatives empowering women through culture, art, and music. Their new video opens with the lyrics, “Nunca dejare de buscar, nunca voy a olvidar” (I will never stop looking, I will never forget), introducing us to the collective’s message: “We will never stop searching for the victims of the ongoing femicide in Ciudad Juarez and we stand strong with our sisters, aunts, cousins, mothers, grandmothers, daughters and friends who are suffering in Juarez.”

For me, the most powerful moments in the video were those that showed streetside missing persons posters, the faded and discolored photographs and names of the disappeared women a testament to how long their cases have gone unsolved and to how important it is to bring their stories out of the shadows and into public memory. And even while the artists explore the grief and pain of women in Ciudad Juarez, they also include images of smiling women, reminding their viewers that the lives of women in Juarez aren’t marked only by trauma and loss but also by joy and life. Women aren’t just victims. They’re living.

2017 saw both a rise in femicides in Latin America and a concerted effort by artists and activists to demand justice. Earlier this year, Argentina’s Fuerza Artística de Choque Comunicativo (F.A.C.C) organized a public protest in which women threw their naked bodies on the street, showcasing how neglected women are in their country and in Latin America. Last month, Miss Peru contestants refused to share their hip, waist, and bust measurements and instead, shared statistics about femicide, rape, and gender-based violence in their country. Las Almas Collective’s video is another example of women refusing to stay silent and using their platforms to protest gender-based violence.

Watch the video below and consider supporting Ni En More, an organization working to economically and politically empower the families of disappeared women.

Header image by Ivan Alvarado.