The Ayotzinapa stories
On 26 September 2014, 43 students from the Ayotzinapa teaching school in Iguala were subjected to enforced disappearance in the state of Guerrero. The burned remains of one of them were found weeks later. The other 42 are still missing. Photographer Scott Brennan traveled to the area and met the relatives of the disappeared students. Here are their stories.
"This is very painful. My son loves the country side and to work here with me but he also wanted a different life. There's never enough money here. Since he was taken away I come here and listen to the silence and the wind and think about him. I can almost feel like he is here with me," Rafael López father of Julio César López Patolzin © Scott Brennan
"The government says they were criminals. My sons were not criminals, they just wanted to study," Joacina Oliveria Parral Rosa, mother of Jorge Luis González Parral and Dorian González Parral © Scott Brennan
"The government says that we should get over the pain but they are wrong because we will not overcome this pain until the 43 are found and those responsible are punished. We will not rest," Maximino Hernandez Cruz, father of Carlos Lorenzo Hernández Muñoz © Scott Brennan
"The government says that our children are dead. But where is the evidence?, they don't have it!, they don't have anything so how can we believe them?," Margarito Guerrero, father of Jhosivani Guerrero de la Cruz © Scott Brennan
"We want to hold them, for them to be happy with us. We are not tired but desperate becuase we have not seen them in a long time," Brigida Olivares, grandmother of Antonio Santana Maestro © Scott Brennan
"They want us to be quiet but that will not happen until they give us our children back or until they tell us something we can believe in, based on evidence," Francisco Lauro Villegas, father of Magdaleno Rubén Lauro Villegas © Scott Brennan
"He came to study in the Ayotzinapa School because he wanted a better life. He wanted to be a teacher. He wanted to help us," Lorenzo Francisco Galvez and Benigna Arzola Cruz, parents of Luis Ángel Francisco Arzola © Scott Brennan
"My sons and I are waiting for him. I will look for him until I find him. I love him very much," Carmen Cruz and one of her sons, she is the mother of Jorge Aníbal Cruz Mendoza © Scott Brennan
Ayotzinapa disappearances: One year on
The long search for justice
