BAYTOWN, TX — The story of the disappearance of 43 Mexican students — taken by police in the city of Iguala nearly two years ago and never seen or heard from again — will be told at Lee College on Thursday, May 5, during a special screening of the film, “Ayotzinapa: Chronicle of a Crime of the State.”
The screening is set for 4-6 p.m., in the Edythe Old Studio on campus. The event is free and open to the public, but donations will be accepted at the door to support the filmmakers and subjects featured in the documentary. The MAS Raza Collective, a student organization with ties to the Mexican American Studies and Puente Project programs, is partnering with the Asamblea Popular de Houston to host the screening.
The MAS Raza Collective aims to educate and improve the community through the power of activism and the empowerment of marginalized groups. In October, the group held a remembrance ceremony and erected a special art installation in the heart of campus to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Ayotzinapa students’ disappearance. The installation featured 43 empty chairs, each draped with a t-shirt and sign bearing the name and face of one of the missing.
In March 2015, Mexican American Studies students at Lee College visited on campus with members of the Asamblea Popular de Houston to learn more about the students of Ayotzinapa, government corruption in Mexico and the history of repression of social movements in the country — particularly with indigenous and rural communities.