In memory of the 43 missing students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School, the 6 fatalities, the dozens of injured people and the hundreds of indirect victims, especially the parents of the missing.
Federico Mastrogiovanni (Rome, 1979) has been living in Mexico for years, but the echo of his native language still resonates in his Spanish. That language in which he has written, among many others, his most recent book, Ayotzinapa and our shadows. Mythologies of a forced disappearance (Grijalbo).
“I think I had more things to say,” Federico answers when asked why write a book, especially one about Ayotzinapa―. I talked about it with my editor. The idea was to try to contribute something to the debate that was not so present. A lot has been said… but a lot has been said in the same direction and with the same intention.
That is, writing about what is forgotten, perhaps considered not important. As a journalist, he calls “aspects” and “dimensions” what has not been explored: “the representation, the discursive, mythological construction of this event, and above all how it has affected all of us as a society.”
CRIME AND FORCED ABSENCE
Federico considers that, to understand the forced disappearance of the 43 students, we do not have to go back to the date of that event, but much earlier, “[pues] It is part of a very broad chronology of peasant, student, resistance, indigenous, and even guerrilla movements, in the state of Guerrero and in other states of the country, and within a tradition of violent repression by the security institutions, specifically the armed forces over at least six decades.”
Es Ileana DiéguezCuban researcher and writer, who mentions the term forced absence. Federico spoke with her and that conversation appears in this book. Beyond everything, the Italian journalist stays with the aforementioned term—which emphasizes the non-voluntariness of the disappeared and the voluntariness of those who disappear—and how these violent and excessive scenarios are communicative and performative acts, “that aim at social disciplining through terror”.
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In the case of forced disappearance, “It is still a discipline through a terror actor, but it operates through the subtraction of the body from the public scene.”. Federico finds this act more disturbing because you don’t really know what has happened to that body, if it is alive or dead.
He finds, in the same vein, that one of the main problems “that we have with the interpretation of the case is, precisely, extrapolating it from that context and [como consecuencia] depoliticize it over the years, building a narrative that makes it inexplicable. Because if the history is eliminated, if the context is eliminated, if the struggle and struggle between normal students, but also all these social movements, and the state security forces are eliminated, it will not be understood”.
THE COORDINATES OF THE BOOK
It is a book that is written from the idea that, although reality exists, it is hidden by narratives and myths. That is why he believes “that there is a mythical construction in this story (several, more than one)”. And, although the myth “has many definitions”, he takes the Roland Barthes“because it describes it as an entity that engulfs reality, that engulfs history, so, to function, it needs simplification and extremization.”
He thinks that, around normal and 43-year-old students, what seems most complicated to address, “is the fact of considering these young people as pure victims, who are only passive”, but they are also those kids who suddenly organize to protest by burning cars or setting up homemade bombs. And they are not exclusive situations. On the contrary: it is essential to understand that these lively young people are all of this and more to understand from that human complexity.
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(Here come the rest of the reflections that contribute to the complexity of the book. From the sleight of hand – which Federico subtracts from a Christopher Nolan film – to the conversations with the filmmakers Everardo González and Amat Escalante; with Santiago Aguirre and María Luisa Aguilar, who belong to Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center, AC; that one with Manuel Vazquez Arellanodeputy for Morena and survivor of the state crime committed in Ayotzinapa; or, the conversation with The Chaina student from the Isidro Burgos Normal Rural School who acts as a surreptitious guide towards understanding in the bowels of the movement.)
MEMORY AND REFLECTION
To explain memory, Federico Mastrogiovanni resort to First Levybecause he says that he “warns us not to give it too much importance, because it is misleading.” It is something that “we are building and changing“, which in a context like this, “is a magma that constantly moves (…), so we must take it into account, but it cannot be our horizon.”
Ayotzinapa and our shadows. Mythologies of a forced disappearance It is a space of complexities and contradictions. For this reason, this book is somewhat different from all the representations that have been born around the forced disappearance of the 43 students of Ayotzinapa: because the nuances are given by the own readings of those who state their positions: Federico accompanies and dialogues, he does not interfere or deny or legitimize. This goes beyond the dichotomy of good and evil. This is more than that night of September 26. It is vital to understand it.
Finally, to understand, Federico encourages not to leave out two basic issues. First, forced disappearance in Mexico is closely linked to social class. And, second, that we must escape the dynamics of mystery, and instead “understand the context in the hope (…) that an event like this, a practice like that of forced disappearance, is already condemned to be in the past forever… [pero aún] we are not there”.
Full interview here:
Next Thursday, October 3, the Italian photojournalist based in Mexico will present his book in The incredible bookstorelocated at Juan de la Barrera 112, Colonia Condesa, CDMX. You can register to attend here.
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2024-10-01 07:46:26