Anti-Feminicide Murals

Don Saul, father of Erika Sánchez Basaldúa, victim of femicide in 2018, stands in front of the mural we painted of Erika – Don Saul was there the whole time we painted, and joined us in picking up a paintbrush and helping paint this portrait of his daughter. Photo by Claudia Matamoros.

Murals first became a part of feminist activism in Quintana Roo with the occupation of the State Congress building from November 2020 – March 2021. Developing organically out of this is the RestaurAmoras anti-feminicide mural project. We painted our first mural of a victim of feminicide in a flurry of anger, passion and solidarity, during the protests organised by feminist collectives over the killing by police of Victoria Salazar. We painted Victoria’s portrait in an hour and half, shielded by a circle of fellow protestors. It wasn’t our most technically proficient mural (!) but the significance for our group is unparalleled – it brought our group to life, and since painting Victoria in March 2021, we have not stopped. We have painted beautiful face after beautiful face of women killed by men; killed by boyfriends and ex-boyfriends mostly, but also by other men in their lives. You can find these murals on the Siempre Unidas Facebook page.

Our main purpose is to provide symbolic reparation for these women’s families. We always seek permission from the families of victims and they are involved and present in some way every time we paint. I can’t tell you how many tears have been cried during the painting and unveiling of these murals – by families, friends, and by us as the artists. Painting murals is a way to honour and remember these women, especially since for most of them, there is no justice, and their killers remain at large. It’s a way to let the families know we care and that their daughters, mothers and sisters won’t be forgotten.

But it’s also a way to visibilise this violence that takes place ‘behind closed doors’, to remind people that these are not private or isolated matters. Femicide is a pandemic, it is necropolitics, and it is a result of the racist, misogynistic, neoliberal global political economy. Yes, individual men kill individual women and there is no excuse for their behaviour. But until we understand and accept that they are just that – men, not monsters or freaks – we will not properly deal with the structural and social conditions that cause and perpetuate femicide and above all, impunity for perpetrators. That’s why it is important to paint in public, to remind everyone that femicide is absolutely a public matter, and it is everyone’s responsibility.