Mexico on Thursday celebrated Mother's Day, a holiday that is far more than a greeting-card moment across the country. Politicians and others pay public homage to motherhood, merchants hawk mom-themed balloons, T-shirts and trinkets, flower stands do a booming trade and children escort smartly outfitted mamás to heavily booked restaurants.
But Mother's Day in Mexico has in recent years become the date of a doleful annual tradition— so-called dignity marches to call for justice in the cases of tens of thousands of Mexicans whose whereabouts are unknown, mostly since the nation declared its war on drug traffickers in 2006. The missing are called the "disappeared," and most are believed to have been abducted and killed.
Thursday marked the seventh consecutive year of Mother's Day protests in Mexico City highlighting the fate of the disappeared. Hundreds of mothers and others assembled from across the country. Similar demonstrations were held in other cities.
For these mothers — and for other relatives of the disappeared — Mother's Day has become a day of protest and remembrance, not a time for family dinners and festivities.
