Digna by
Mexican human rights lawyer Digna Ochoa suffered harrowing attacks in response to her defense of environmentalists. Forced to flee, she finally had to choose: Washington or Mexico—the safety of exile or the pull of her calling? Digna, a solo show based on her life, explores resistance—its modalities and costs—and its essential, transformative power.
Digna Ochoa was one of Mexico’s most prominent...
Digna Ochoa was one of Mexico’s most prominent...
Mexican human rights lawyer Digna Ochoa suffered harrowing attacks in response to her defense of environmentalists. Forced to flee, she finally had to choose: Washington or Mexico—the safety of exile or the pull of her calling? Digna, a solo show based on her life, explores resistance—its modalities and costs—and its essential, transformative power.
Digna Ochoa was one of Mexico’s most prominent human rights defenders. By age 37, she had met President Clinton, was close to the Kennedy family, was a MacArthur Fellow and had won Amnesty International's Eduring Spirit Award. In 2001, all her connections notwithstanding, she was gunned down in her Mexico City office.
Her case is emblematic. The rallying cry of those demanding justice in the 2014 disappearance of 43 university students–a case that has called the world’s attention to Mexico–is “Fue el Estado”; “It was the government.” In Digna’s murder, too, the evidence points to the state. After initially declaring her death a clear political assassination, the Mexican government changed its tack when the evidence pointed to the army. The government insists that Digna killed herself, and cleverly staged the scene to resemble a murder.
Compelled by the worsening human rights crisis in Mexico, Digna returns from the dead to give a lecture on resistance. As she progresses through the lecture, drawing on her own life for examples of the basic tenets and modalities of resistance, she is beset by doubt. She begins to leave the stage. But she returns; she will speak, even if it is pointless. She will speak, simply to resist. In telling her story and confronting her doubts, she finds her strength and courage and invites us to find our own.
Digna's story is especially timely. Environmental activists and their defenders are being murdered in ever greater numbers. Worldwide, each week an average of three environmental activists are assassinated. Mexico, meanwhile, is spiraling into unprecedented violence. A recent report by the Open Society Justice Initiative found that the government’s systematic torture and mass executions amount to crimes against humanity. As Digna points out from the stage, when the US tightens the border and continues to send guns and funding the to Mexican military, only one result is possible--more murders.
Running time: about 60 minutes.
Digna Ochoa was one of Mexico’s most prominent human rights defenders. By age 37, she had met President Clinton, was close to the Kennedy family, was a MacArthur Fellow and had won Amnesty International's Eduring Spirit Award. In 2001, all her connections notwithstanding, she was gunned down in her Mexico City office.
Her case is emblematic. The rallying cry of those demanding justice in the 2014 disappearance of 43 university students–a case that has called the world’s attention to Mexico–is “Fue el Estado”; “It was the government.” In Digna’s murder, too, the evidence points to the state. After initially declaring her death a clear political assassination, the Mexican government changed its tack when the evidence pointed to the army. The government insists that Digna killed herself, and cleverly staged the scene to resemble a murder.
Compelled by the worsening human rights crisis in Mexico, Digna returns from the dead to give a lecture on resistance. As she progresses through the lecture, drawing on her own life for examples of the basic tenets and modalities of resistance, she is beset by doubt. She begins to leave the stage. But she returns; she will speak, even if it is pointless. She will speak, simply to resist. In telling her story and confronting her doubts, she finds her strength and courage and invites us to find our own.
Digna's story is especially timely. Environmental activists and their defenders are being murdered in ever greater numbers. Worldwide, each week an average of three environmental activists are assassinated. Mexico, meanwhile, is spiraling into unprecedented violence. A recent report by the Open Society Justice Initiative found that the government’s systematic torture and mass executions amount to crimes against humanity. As Digna points out from the stage, when the US tightens the border and continues to send guns and funding the to Mexican military, only one result is possible--more murders.
Running time: about 60 minutes.