This image shows an important character in the story, Abril. Abril is a journalist who tries to show from a first-person point of view the stories that happened and what Julia and other people have to go through when searching for disappeared people. She represents the media and clearly takes the role of trying to give visibility and help to this problem. As well at the end it shows the risks that the media have when doing this type of thing and unfortunately a reason why it's not that common. 

This scene shows a person who is part of a group of people who have been searching for almost a decade for other people. People who already know how to search, where to search and important things that helped Julia and can help anyone in this situation. They have a key role as they even found things, but mostly it represents how people together can make change without the need of authorities.

Most relevant

We think this was the most relevant role regarding the issue as they were the ones trying to make a change, making things happen. People by themselves were searching for these disappeared people and as Julia said they were making the job of others when they shouldn't. We think the whole story emphasizes in people and how they can make a difference.

There are many ways the media can either help or hide these types of situations. As FUNDENL has previously done, the media can be convened or they by their own choice to go and try to give visibility to this huge problem Mexico has. They can talk about the truth, about how disappearances in Mexico are high, and how there is no visible change to try to change this. More importantly, they can help in these searches just by posting the images, names, or else to try to give visibility to more people who may want to help.

On the other hand, the media can also choose to either not talk about this issue and therefore not give it the visibility it deserves, or as well try to talk badly about it. Saying things which are not true and guiding the opinion of the people towards thinking that those disappearances are their fault, narc disappearances, and things like that.  I think the media prefer to remain silent for their own safety which I don't blame them but unfortunately is bad.

Civic participation can be mean towards resilience as it helps to not feel alone. Helps to think that you have help, more people care about the same concern and try to make a change. It creates a great resilience in a fight where this is one of the most important things in my opinion.   

Questions

How is the process of searching for someone?

How can people help?

I think wealth can be related because the fact of losing a son for me is a loss of wealth. Family is very important and something that people should take care of more even than money. On the other hand poverty maybe can’t be related at all with what Ley shared of his story, didn't talk about money or something similar that I can relate with poverty. 

Why inequality affects (or not) the crisis on forced disappearances

I think inequality affects the crisis of forced disappearances as it is the same have economic resources or not when searching for these forced disappearances. You usually need high economic resources if you want to search for yourself and with the inequality that isn't possible for many people. 

How can you become a better citizen in terms of understanding wealth and poverty

You can become a better citizen by just listening and trying to understand more people. Usually we live enclosed in what we already know or we think we know and that is bad a There is always more stories, and more things you can learn and therefore help you become a better citizen. 

What is the origin of inequality?

I don’t think there is a clear origin of inequality, you would have to go back a lot of years to find the origin but there could be many factors, money, politics, people and more things could be the origin. 

Each of us can do whatever we can to help and bring justice to each of these families. As students with many resources, we can do many things, such as speaking up, listening to each of their stories, and putting ourselves in their shoes, publishing and sharing. This way, we can all work together and achieve justice and peace for all these families who feel alone.

After the session, I realized I had learned a lot. Some of it made me feel uneasy. This topic in particular feels very noble and delicate to me. It is hard to find anything negative in a project that is trying to find missing people, yet there are still cases where these efforts are silenced. The media, which is supposed to bring visibility to these kinds of issues, sometimes chooses not to cover them properly. In some situations, they even publish stories that revictimize the victims by suggesting that what happened was partly their fault. For example, they might point out that the person was out late at night, went to a party or had been drinking. There are many ways in which the media portrays victims as responsible for what happened to them.

Trying to understand the media’s point of view, I can see that sometimes they might choose not to cover certain stories for their own safety. But this only shows how bad the situation in Mexico really is regarding these issues and how little progress is being made.

Still, the media is not always negative. As I mentioned before, they can help raise awareness and in many cases do it in a helpful way. They inform people about what is going on. In fact, FUNDENL shared with us that they sometimes invite media to the places where they will be. The media can help in many ways. They can give space to people to speak the truth about what is happening with disappearances in Mexico, which are more common than most of us think. They can also help by publishing photos of missing people to support the search for them.

Civic participation can definitely have a strong effect and serve as a valuable source of resilience. It helps us connect with each other and reminds us that we are not alone when facing these problems. It helps people feel supported in battles that can otherwise be very lonely, especially when they do not get the visibility they deserve. When people feel united and accompanied, they are more likely to be motivated to create change. This is why I believe that resilience is so important when dealing with issues as devastating as this ones.