On Wednesday, March 8, 2023, on Día Internacional de las Mujeres — International Women’s Day several hundred women gathered at the Monumento Mexico round circle in Zona Rio, Tijuana, Mexico to demand an end to femicide and violence against women which is a common occurrence in Mexico.
A La Raza Monument, known as “Scissors” due to its peculiar shape was covered in spray painted messages and served as an altar to women who had been killed and received little justice. Some women also brought signs bearing the names and faces of men accused of rape and assault and attached them to street signs and other fixtures.
According to Mexico’s National Registry of Disappeared or Missing Persons, more than 2,000 women are missing in Baja California which ranks second in femicides in Mexico in 2022.
This year, women took to the streets for Alina Narciso who was sentenced to 45 years in prison for a homicide she told the judge she committed in self-defense because her partner was violent toward her.
Also representing migrants in the march were several trans women who are seeking asylum from Mexico because of the violence they have experienced. They came with Yolanda Rocha, director of Jardin de las Mariposas, a migrant shelter that serves the LGBTQ community.
As the time to march neared, Tijuana police closed the roads around the traffic circle that surrounded the monument, and women filled the street.
I was actually across the street at the mall visiting Sears and after lunch I was amazed to find several hundred women gathered at the monument. Curious, I rushed to join them. After shooting a good ten minutes of footage, I was politely ushered out by a woman who told me that men were not allowed here.
“Go across the street,” a lady dressed in purple yelled. “You can watch us protest from there.”
I later found out that men were not permitted to march, even though I explained that I was a blogger just interested in covering the event.
A little after 4 p.m., the march began moving along Paseo de los Héroes.
In their chants, they called for members of the public to not be indifferent to the killings happening in front of them.
Some beat drums and others shook noise makers.
They soon turned around and headed to the municipal building.
On the way, some tagged the sidewalks and walls they passed.
“Ni una más,” one wrote, a longtime slogan for the movement. Not one more.
Lines of Tijuana police stood in front of the Palacio Municipal as they marched past.
“La policia no me cuida. Me cuidan mis amigas,” the women yelled. The police don’t take care of me. My friends take care of me.