With illustrations and testimonies from migrant women about the painful and difficult journey of leaving home in search of a better life, the organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Terreno Baldío Taller de Proyectos present the open-air exhibition, "Journeys: Stories of women on the road”.
"Ukraine never thought that it would be in a situation of refuge and this should lead us to think that it is not a matter of nationality, it is that today it is them, but tomorrow it could be us, the world is that crazy and it is a topic that can touch us all"reflects in an interview with Efe the spokesman for the humanitarian organization, Néstor Anteros Rubiano.
The letters of eight Latin American women who have experienced firsthand the difficulties of migrating and the gender-based violence that it entails, inspired the illustrations by Ana Elisa Villanueva Dorantes, who turned these testimonies into graphics that show the pain, but also the hope and resilience of who migrate.
"We wanted them to capture it themselves through letters where they told their feelings and thoughts about how their path has impacted them"said the director of communication for MSF, Laura Panqueva before inaugurating the exhibition located in the Plaza Luis Cabrera in Mexico City with which the International Day of Refugees is commemorated on June 20.
"In less than a year we have attended at least every day to a woman who has suffered sexual violence in the last three days, which means that it is a very dramatic situation that women go through"deepens Rubiano.
The surprising and sad experience of a woman with her husband and son crossing the so-called Darién Gap -on the border between Colombia and Panama-, the tortuous path of a mother and son who had to face a kidnapping and deportation or the history of a family that left everything overnight due to insecurity in their country, are some of the stories that make up the sample.
According to data from the medical-humanitarian organization, in 2021 the situation of migrants and refugees in the region deteriorated due to the covid-19 pandemic, the violent immigration policies implemented by the authorities, as well as mass deportations, and the criminalization of migration.
"I would really like to invite governments to stop the rhetoric and put the migrant at the center of migration policy"says Rubiano.
The exhibition can be visited from Friday, June 17 to Saturday, September 17 at Plaza Luis Cabrera, located in the Roma neighborhood, in Mexico City.
