Yesenia Zamudio
If They See Me Dressed in Black
For all those who nobody names.
Stop profiting off our pain.
And if they see me dressed in black, and as a radical, and if I burn and break and start a damn riot in this city, what is their damn problem? They killed my daughter!
I’m not a collective, I don’t need a drum, or a damn political party to represent me. I represent myself, without a microphone. I am a mother whose daughter was murdered, and I am an empowered mother and a feminist! And I have had enough!
I have every right to burn and break! I’m not going to ask permission from anybody, because I am breaking for my daughter.
Those who want to break, break, and those who want to burn, burn. And those who don’t, don’t stand in our way!
Before they murdered my daughter, they had murdered many others, many! And what are we all doing? Sitting comfortably in our homes, crying and sewing. Not anymore, gentlemen. It’s over! We’ve broken the silence, and we are not going to let them make a damn circus out of our pain. And if they are going to talk, then they must talk about everyone.
Talk about everyone who rapes and harasses teachers and public servants. Talk about those who throw acid at women. Talk about the girls who are raped in their beds, when their own fathers and families say nothing, because their Catholic religion doesn’t let them speak out. Mother of María de Jesús Jaime Zamudio, I demand justice for me, for my family, and for my daughter, and for all the women who nobody names.
Because every day they kill a woman, and another and another. I cannot solve my daughter’s case, but ten, a hundred, a thousand more cases have already come to me!
— Yesenia Zamudio
Edit: a friend has kindly directed us to the original video, with Spanish subtitles, posted to the youtube channel Combatimos La Tiranía (We Fight Tyranny): Fuerte Discurso de una Madre que Perdió a su Hija María de Jesús Jaime Zamudio–Marichuy to her loved ones–was 19 years old when she thrown from a fifth story window in 2016. She was studying to be an engineer. The footage of her mother Yesenia Zamudio’s speech is from a demonstration in honor of Ingrid Escamilla, who was murdered and dismembered by her partner at 25 years old.[1] for Marichuy, for Ingrid, and for all those who nobody names.
[1] Darinka Rodríguez, “I have every right to burn and to break”: The Mexican woman seeking justice for her daughter’s murder. 2020. Retrieved October 19, 2022.