MURAL IN TIJUANA HONORS MISSING TEEN FOUND DEAD IN MEXICO
Artists want justice for Debanhi Escobar and other women
Two Tijuana artists painted a large mural honoring young Debanhi Escobar, who after 13 days missing was found dead in late April in a motel cistern in Nuevo Leon, Mexico.
With their work, artists Rafael Aguirre and Oswaldo Carmona, also want to raise their voices for all the missing women in Mexico, they said.
“Que ninguna sea la próxima” (Let no one be the next), appears next to an image depicting the last known photo of 18-year-old Escobar, standing alone on the side of a highway.
Next to it, reads a second message: “Feliz será el día que no falte ninguna” (“Happy would be the day that none are missing”) in purple letters with a white background, along with the names of missing women in Tijuana.
The images are part of a 16-foot-tall and 60-foot-wide mural in Tijuana’s Colonia Libertad. The artists demand justice for Escobar and other victims in Mexico.
Aguirre and Carmona finished the acrylic paint mural last week. Images of the artwork were quickly shared on social media.
While they were working, women approached to thank them, and there were even those who gave them water and sodas to express their gratitude, Aguirre said.
Debanhi’s case has caused an uproar in Mexico,
a country where, on average, more than 10 women are killed every day, according to Agencia EFE. Nationwide, over 24,000 women are missing, according to the National
Search Commission (CNB).
The case is under investigation by the Nuevo Leon Prosecutor’s Office. No arrests have been made.
Escobar, a law student, went missing April 9 after she attended a party with two women.
Police found her body nearly two weeks later.
Mexican authorities have released some videos that are part of the investigation, where Escobar is seen walking the area where she was found.
Authorities said she died from a “deep contusion to the skull.” But the cause of the contusion remains unknown.
“It hits us hard, because it’s not just one, there are quite a few women who have suffered from this,” Carmona said. “I have sisters; I have my mother; I have my wife. And we wouldn’t want something like this to happen to us.”
The mural was painted at the same spot where two years ago Aguirre painted a superhero-themed mural to honor health care workers amid the pandemic.