Winner of the 2023 Student Academy Award
Since 1964 almost 250,000 people have disappeared in Mexico and over 100,000 have not been found. Thousands of people across the country are still looking for their loved ones, especially mothers who will not rest until they find their children.
Three years after her daughter, Rubi, went missing in Orizaba, Veracruz Mexico, Araceli Salcedo decided to start a collective in her own community. Today there are over 350 members in the group, and 90% of them are mothers. Together they have successfully found 15 people alive, returned 71 bodies, and spotted 53 clandestine graves in the past year. However, most of these women have not found their children.
One of the coping and healing mechanisms that Araceli created for the mothers in her collective are muñecos sanadores or “healing dolls”. The dolls represent each of their children and serve as a tool to help them navigate the void that their loved ones left behind.