Ni Una Más: The Reality of International Women’s Day in Mexico

March 8 is considered International Women’s Day. And I say it is considered due to the great movement that we have seen in recent years, specifically in Mexico. International Women’s Day is not a reason for celebration, since what frames this commemoration is the fight of women for equality against men, the accusations of abuse and violence of which they are victims, the claim of justice; and the recognition of their particular rights. March 8th doesn’t mean celebrating, because women do not have something to celebrate. 

In Mexico, between 2,000-3,000 cases of disappeared girls and women were reported, without being located in the year 2022. It is estimated that more than 1,000 femicides occur in Mexico every year, however, the actual numbers are never revealed by the Mexican government. Feminicide is known as the “murder of a woman at the hands of a man due to machismo or misogyny.” That is, most of the female population is in danger on the streets of Mexico. 

So why should International Women’s Day be celebrated when women have never been free? Femicide cases, for the most part, have no justice, just like disappearance cases. International Women’s Day, in Mexico, is known as a nationwide movement, where all women march. They commemorate a date that does not give Mexican women equality to fight for their rights. March 8th is to protest. Hundreds of thousands of students, public employees, civil servants, domestic workers, mothers with their daughters or relatives of victims of femicide rise as a group, raising their voices, in search of answers, equality, and with despair before the corrupt Mexican government.

In every part of Mexico, women plan their routes for the march, share it on their social networks, and leave their routes and schedules. It can be said that it is the only moment where the woman can be “safe” walking all over the city. The women protect each other, and that has been seen in the marches of the past years, where if something happens, they all seek to help.

They don’t march to celebrate International Women’s Day. The march is carried out between shouts and songs, with posters and colored handkerchiefs. Women shouting “Ni una mas,” and “Mexico feminicida,” among many other things. Posters full of names of missing women and in the crowd, girls on the shoulders of their relatives, marching for their rights.

They march for their rights, for the disappeared women and girls, for the femicide of Debanhi Escobar (18 years old), for Nayeli Alfaro (25 years old), Brenda (4 years old), Luz Raquel Padilla, Ariadna Fernanda Lopez (27 years old), Maria Belen Bernal, Blanca Arellano, Michelle Nicolich, Francesca Flores, Ingrid Escamilla, and the list goes on and on.