A young man cuts his partner’s hair in the hallway, others go over a mural with brushes that has been calling for a “revolution” for decades and a few finalize details for the days of protest for the eighth anniversary of the crime against their 43 companions of the rural school for teachers of Ayotzinapathe largest mass disappearance in the recent history of Mexico.
Nothing here is the same,” student Alexander Salazar tells Efe.
The rural normal schools were created in 1922 to train peasant children as teachers to bring education to the countryside.
Since then, they have had a history of struggle and demands, especially since the fateful October 2, 1968, when the government militarily crushed the student movement concentrated in the plaza of Tlatelolco, in the Mexico Citywith an unknown death toll.
But in the Ayotzinapa normal, located in the southern state of Guerrero, everything changed after the night of september 26, 2014, when 43 of his first-year classmates disappeared after being intercepted by the police and military when they were traveling in trucks that they had hijacked to go to the capital for the traditional protest against the Tlatelolco massacre.
“I want to study without dying trying”
A normal day for students like Alexander – he is in his second year – starts at 7 in the morning for breakfast. Afterwards, he takes classes and does other activities until nightfall. The same the next day.
In the days prior to the anniversary of September 26, what they call the days of struggle take placeso at school, in addition to their usual educational activities, they also hold rallies and organize themselves for the actions they carry out in other places in Guerrero and in Mexico City.
Inside the school, on the central sports field, 43 empty desks are found that remind their classmates that they could never return to the classroom.
And on the walls of each building all the years of struggle permeate with murals with phrases like “I want to study without dying trying.”
Ayotzinapa Normal School, without rest in the fight
There has been a change in the normal since the 43 happened, since that happened the normal is in constant struggle and protest, ”Alexander shares with Efe.
So much so, that direct actions do not cease. Despite the commitment established by the current president Andrés Manuel López Obrador to clarify the case and the progress made by drops, the students show their support for the families and demand the appearance of their classmates with protests that reach the flames.
Last week they burned two trucks in Chilpancingo and Iguala at the gates of the military battalions.
There are many people who are somewhat dissatisfied with the radical activities that have been carried out, but these activities have an end, radical actions are carried out to put pressure on the Government and they are carried out in the battalions because they are the ones who are involved in the disappearance”, defends the 19-year-old student.
In addition, another of his colleagues, Erick Martínez, 20, remarks, the protests seek that the case not be forgotten.
The more time passes, the more it will be forgotten, but we will not let this die. The parents are still there and they haven’t known for eight years”, explains the student, who is experiencing his first days of struggle in Ayotzinapa.
A change of life
Erick, from the small town of Chilacachapa, six hours by car from Ayotzinapa, barely knew about the case of the 43 missing normalistas before deciding to study at the normal school because he did not have many resources.
Despite being from the state of Guerrero, I did not have much knowledge of this case,” he acknowledges.
But both he and his companions, when they start their studies, quickly acquire historical, social and even legal or juridical knowledge related to their struggles.
When you get here it is essential to know this subject because when you enter you begin to live together, to socialize and empathize with the people and with the pain they suffered. One, empathizing as a human being, becomes attached to feelings of struggle”, he highlights.
And, for them, children of peasants, it means a privilege to be in a place where they learn and know the history of their country, something that, they consider, changes them forever.
“For me, it is a change that is good for me”, outlines Erick, before adding: “we support each other by being united, we become a little stronger. Ayotzi we are all. We are all one and we are all one”.
This feeling of belonging and unity makes the young students remain convinced of their cause and not be intimidated by the repression of the Mexican State, sentenced forever in place for the terror experienced in a violent night that left several dead, dozens injured and 43 students who never returned to their families.
The school gives you everything, it is your second mother, your second home, since it gives you a roof to sleep under, three meals a day and in the future it will be giving you a degree to have a stable job. I feel proud to be in Ayotzinapa”, concludes Alexander.
The last:
EFE International news agency based in Madrid and present in more than 110 countries.