Mexican musician finds refuge in saxophone after acid assault
By Associated Press
MEXICO CITY: María Elena Ríos has conflicting emotions about her saxophone: She as soon as blamed the instrument for bringing her to the brink of dying — however it additionally has been her salvation.
Ríos, 29, thought her profession as a musician and her devotion to her saxophone have been what led her former boyfriend — an influential politician — to rent the boys who splashed acid onto her face and physique, disfiguring her. Later, she realized he merely couldn’t settle for that she had damaged off their relationship.
Some of the attackers and the ex-boyfriend are in jail, however Ríos nonetheless needed to come to phrases together with her instrument. Her love of the saxophone, ultimately, helps heal the psychological scars left by the terrifying assault.
“We are reconciling, little by little,” Ríos mentioned of the musical instrument. “I hated it, because I thought it was responsible” for the 2019 assault in Mexico’s southern state of Oaxaca. She’s carried out stay since then, however nonetheless wears a masks overlaying her decrease face.
“It bothered my attacker a lot that I was a musician,” Ríos recounts, “because he said we musicians were vagrants, poverty-stricken, that we just took drugs and that when I went to concerts I probably participated in orgies.”
The ex-politician who allegedly ordered the assault is being held in jail whereas awaiting trial, as are two different males, however one other stays at massive.
Meanwhile, Ríos has joined a motion calling for better punishments for acid assaults and says the saxophone is her “sword” in that battle on behalf of victims.
Mexico City legislators have proposed a invoice bearing her nickname, “Malena,” which might classify acid assaults as a definite, critical crime equal to tried femicide. Currently they’re handled as easy assault or bodily damage.
Acid assaults are most typical in South Asia, but additionally have been documented in lots of different components of the world, together with Latin America.
The Carmen Sánchez Foundation, began in 2021 to focus on the difficulty in Mexico, says authorities well being knowledge from 2022 suggests greater than 100 ladies have been attacked by chemical substances or some sort of corrosive agent, although solely 28 have been reported to authorities.
Ríos remembers having to decide on, at age 9, between enjoying soccer and becoming a member of one of many musical bands which can be a well-liked neighborhood exercise within the rural villages in Oaxaca.
“I am not her anymore. I am not the beautiful young woman who played the saxophone anymore,” mentioned Ríos. “Today I can say I have been forced to become a defender of my own rights, and a defender of the rights of other fellow women survivors.”
She was hospitalized for 5 months after the assault, and nonetheless remembers the disappointment in her dad and mom’ eyes when she awoke in hospital.
She now attends musical lessons in Mexico City, the place she has taken refuge because the assault. The federal authorities has offered her with bodyguards as a result of her attacker was rich and influential.
Ríos mentioned she and her household have been harassed earlier than the assault, when she tried to interrupt off the connection. She says the harassment continues, and that she lives in fixed concern for her life.
The man accused of ordering the assault, Juan Manuel Vera Carrizal, was a neighborhood legislator and businessman. He has declared himself harmless and his attorneys deny he had any involvement.
Even although he was jailed and expelled from his political celebration in 2020, Ríos says he nonetheless has affect.
In January he was virtually launched to accommodate arrest after a decide tried to reclassify the crime, making use of guidelines for a lesser offense. But as a result of her case has gained has gained nationwide consideration, the try failed.
Music is now a refuge for Ríos. “When I begin to assemble my saxophone, I feel like I am putting myself together,” she says.
Last 12 months she was invited to play on stage for the primary time after the assault. It was on the annual Vive Latino music pageant in Mexico City with the rock group Maldita Vecindad.
She says it made her really feel “eternal.”
MEXICO CITY: María Elena Ríos has conflicting emotions about her saxophone: She as soon as blamed the instrument for bringing her to the brink of dying — however it additionally has been her salvation.
Ríos, 29, thought her profession as a musician and her devotion to her saxophone have been what led her former boyfriend — an influential politician — to rent the boys who splashed acid onto her face and physique, disfiguring her. Later, she realized he merely couldn’t settle for that she had damaged off their relationship.
Some of the attackers and the ex-boyfriend are in jail, however Ríos nonetheless needed to come to phrases together with her instrument. Her love of the saxophone, ultimately, helps heal the psychological scars left by the terrifying assault.
“We are reconciling, little by little,” Ríos mentioned of the musical instrument. “I hated it, because I thought it was responsible” for the 2019 assault in Mexico’s southern state of Oaxaca. She’s carried out stay since then, however nonetheless wears a masks overlaying her decrease face.
“It bothered my attacker a lot that I was a musician,” Ríos recounts, “because he said we musicians were vagrants, poverty-stricken, that we just took drugs and that when I went to concerts I probably participated in orgies.”
The ex-politician who allegedly ordered the assault is being held in jail whereas awaiting trial, as are two different males, however one other stays at massive.
Meanwhile, Ríos has joined a motion calling for better punishments for acid assaults and says the saxophone is her “sword” in that battle on behalf of victims.
Mexico City legislators have proposed a invoice bearing her nickname, “Malena,” which might classify acid assaults as a definite, critical crime equal to tried femicide. Currently they’re handled as easy assault or bodily damage.
Acid assaults are most typical in South Asia, but additionally have been documented in lots of different components of the world, together with Latin America.
The Carmen Sánchez Foundation, began in 2021 to focus on the difficulty in Mexico, says authorities well being knowledge from 2022 suggests greater than 100 ladies have been attacked by chemical substances or some sort of corrosive agent, although solely 28 have been reported to authorities.
Ríos remembers having to decide on, at age 9, between enjoying soccer and becoming a member of one of many musical bands which can be a well-liked neighborhood exercise within the rural villages in Oaxaca.
“I am not her anymore. I am not the beautiful young woman who played the saxophone anymore,” mentioned Ríos. “Today I can say I have been forced to become a defender of my own rights, and a defender of the rights of other fellow women survivors.”
She was hospitalized for 5 months after the assault, and nonetheless remembers the disappointment in her dad and mom’ eyes when she awoke in hospital.
She now attends musical lessons in Mexico City, the place she has taken refuge because the assault. The federal authorities has offered her with bodyguards as a result of her attacker was rich and influential.
Ríos mentioned she and her household have been harassed earlier than the assault, when she tried to interrupt off the connection. She says the harassment continues, and that she lives in fixed concern for her life.
The man accused of ordering the assault, Juan Manuel Vera Carrizal, was a neighborhood legislator and businessman. He has declared himself harmless and his attorneys deny he had any involvement.
Even although he was jailed and expelled from his political celebration in 2020, Ríos says he nonetheless has affect.
In January he was virtually launched to accommodate arrest after a decide tried to reclassify the crime, making use of guidelines for a lesser offense. But as a result of her case has gained has gained nationwide consideration, the try failed.
Music is now a refuge for Ríos. “When I begin to assemble my saxophone, I feel like I am putting myself together,” she says.
Last 12 months she was invited to play on stage for the primary time after the assault. It was on the annual Vive Latino music pageant in Mexico City with the rock group Maldita Vecindad.
She says it made her really feel “eternal.”
