(EFE).- Mexico City's new Indomitable Memory Museum commemorates events that rocked Mexico, such as the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre and the 1971 Corpus Christi massacre, demanding justice for the hundreds of people who disappeared due to their political beliefs.
"Death allows us to rest, but a disappearance does not kill and does not let you live. That uncertainty of not knowing what happened to them is ongoing torture," Rosario Piedra, the relative of a man missing for nearly 40 years, said during the museum's inauguration last Thursday.
Piedra is the sister of Jesus Piedra Ibarra, who disappeared in the northern industrial city of Monterrey in 1974.
The disappearance of Jesus Piedra, accused of belonging to an armed group, and the tireless fight by his mother, Rosario Ibarra, to learn his fate laid the foundation for the creation of the Eureka Committee by mothers of political detainees during Mexico's 1960-1970 "Dirty War."
The Eureka Committee and the HIJOS human rights group are behind the museum, which was conceived as a "center for remembering" and is housed in a restored two-story 1923 building that used to serve as a firehouse and was donated by Mexico City's government to the organizations.
The museum houses photographs, videos, testimonials and diary entries from the missing, with the facility's entrance adorned by a quote from Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano: "Los desaparecidos no desaparecen, ni desapareceran mientras esten vivos en la memoria de quienes se reconocen en ellos" (The disappeared do not disappear, nor will they disappear while they remain alive in the memories of those who see themselves in them).
Mexico "lacks a clear awareness that forced disappearance is not something new, that it happened decades ago," creating a society that is increasingly "less demanding" of the government when it comes to protecting rights, Tania Ramirez, a member of HIJOS, told Efe.
The 34-year-old Ramirez is the daughter of Rafael Ramirez Duarte, who disappeared in July 1977, and specializes in the area of human rights.
The current disappearances in Mexico are much more numerous and mark a continuation of the climate of impunity created decades ago amid the absence of trials and punishment for those who committed the crimes, Ramirez said.
"The hundreds of disappearances during the sixties, seventies and eighties created a scenario of disinterest, of lack of attention, of no justice, of not caring for the families, the victims, and impunity takes root in that environment," Ramirez said.
The Eureka Committee has documented 552 disappearances of a political nature since 1969, but Ramirez says the number could be much larger given the fact that the human rights group has only tallied cases in which disappearances were officially reported.
The museum's inauguration was attended by relatives of the missing, people from the arts world, such as writer Elena Poniatowska, and some of the few people released after being abducted.
Ramirez insisted that the facility not be referred to as a museum because what it holds "is still alive."
Laura Gaitan, a psychologist from the northern state of Chihuahua who was kidnapped in 1974 at the age of 23 along with her 2-year-old son, told Efe she was taken to a military base, where she was tortured physically and psychologically.
Gaitan, who belonged to the Revolutionary Action Movement, was released three months later and can tell her story.
"I had the idea that they were going to kill me. But one day they just simply got me from the basement where they kept me and took me to a truck stop so I could go to my house in Chihuahua, telling me not to call anyone, that they would kill me if I got involved in political matters again," the 55-year-old Gaitan said.
"That is something you should not forget, you should always have it present. It is dangerous to forget these stories. This building houses all the feelings, all the pain, all the hopes," Gaitan said.
One room houses the "Los desaparecidos nos faltan a todos" (The Disappeared Are Missing for All of Us) photographic exhibit, which features numerous celebrities, such as singer-songwriter Daniel Viglietti, Poniatowska and journalist Carmen Aristegui.
Poniatowska, who has written about the Tlatelolco massacre and forced disappearances, said she was trying to console a crying Rosario Ibarra one day and asked her what was wrong.
Ibarra replied that she was crying because her son might be getting wet wherever he might be, Poniatowska said.
"Disappearance is the worst form of torture," the writer told Efe, adding that "we have to remember to avoid making the same mistakes again
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