The acid attack survivor fighting for justice

Brut America

She survived an acid attack and helped change laws against it in her city.   After almost three years and 12 surgeries, this woman is still fighting for justice. This is her story.

Transcript

00:00I open the emergency doors and I start screaming that they threw acid at me,

00:04that please help me, and I only see all the nurses and doctors running towards me.

00:25There is a pattern in acid attacks.

00:29And it's usually an ex-partner, or it's always a gender-based issue,

00:34because it goes directly to your beauty, it goes directly to your identity.

00:39It comes from an issue of if you're not mine, you're not anyone's,

00:42if you're not going to like anyone anymore, you're done with being pretty.

00:47Given the situation I had had in the past with a certain subject, it makes a lot of sense to me.

00:59There is a pattern in acid attacks.

01:03And it's usually an issue of if you're not mine, you're done with being pretty.

01:07Given the situation I had had in the past with a certain subject, it makes a lot of sense to me.

01:29And the moment I turn to go in is when I can only see from the side how she does this,

01:41that is, how she throws something from bottom to top.

01:44Agony begins, because I begin to feel the acid all over my face, all over my arm.

01:50And I remember that I tried to open it, I put the key in, and it wouldn't open, it wouldn't open,

01:53and I didn't understand why, until I was able to stick the key super close to my left eye.

01:59And I realized that the key was melting because of the simple fact that I was touching it.

02:04I mean, the moment I see the key bubbling and the tips melting like a candle,

02:13I said, this is acid.

02:29I was already starting to feel like you were really starting to turn off.

02:35I mean, your brain no longer works, the pain you feel, your thoughts no longer make sense,

02:44the tongue completely destroyed because it also got into my mouth.

02:48I have trypophobia, which is like these little balls, they give me anxiety,

02:53I mean, a lot of little balls together, and I felt like I had all the cheeks internally perforated.

03:04Unfortunately, the doctors in Mexico are not prepared for a chemical burn.

03:10They had no idea what to do with me.

03:12They kept me in this hospital for a week with all the wounds exposed,

03:17putting a cream on me every certain hour and with morphine all day.

03:23The doctors in Mexico are not prepared for a chemical burn.

03:25They had no idea what to do with me.

03:27They kept me in this hospital for a week with all the wounds exposed.

03:30They had no idea what to do with me.

03:33The doctors in Mexico are not prepared for a chemical burn.

03:35They had no idea what to do with me.

03:42When we were going to file the report, my lawyers told me that it was a shame,

03:49almost that what happened to me, that everything was very bad,

03:51but that this is not a crime in Mexico because it is not written in the criminal code.

03:56So they were classifying everything as wounds that heal between 15 and 60 days.

04:04As if they had given me a shot, right?

04:06So, imagine the indignation of my family and mine,

04:12because everything that happened is not a crime because it is not written on a paper.

04:50It is outrageous how, to do justice, you have to gather all the elements,

04:57to follow up, to be pressuring, to be evidencing, to be re-victimizing yourself

05:04and doing all this amount of things that are truly exhausting.

05:09And even more, after what happened to you,

05:11to come to another place to start from scratch, with my face like this,

05:14without being able to treat my surgeries with my doctors,

05:17because, what else?

05:18It was that they would kill me in any corner and that no one would say anything.

05:32Raise your voice, don't be afraid.

05:34Sometimes it is very difficult because you are afraid if they are going to believe you,

05:37if they are going to judge you, if they are going to support you.

05:40But there will always be someone who will be willing to listen to you,

05:42to support you, to give you a refuge.

05:46That no one deserves their silence or their complicity,

05:49because to shut up is to be an accomplice.

05:51It is the only reason why I still have that public Instagram,

05:54because an endless number of people have come to me asking for help.

05:57I don't ask for anything in return, just justice, justice.

06:01That's all I ask for.

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