Mexico City /
Mr. Mario Gonzalez He did not want his son to study at the Raul Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School, from Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, wanted him to dedicate himself to another career or trade, to stay in Huamantla, Tlaxcala, where they release bulls in the street, in the pure style of the Spanish Pamplona, but Caesar’s insistencehis firstborn, for wanting to be a teacher was strong, a dream that couldn’t be stopped.
His son’s dream, he says, was to finish his career as a teacher.inspired by having participated in the extramural days in the Tlaxcala mountains and by invitation of friends in Chilpancingo He set out on the journey without knowing that he would disappear and become a piece of the history of violence in 21st century Mexico.
It’s been 10 years since the phone hasn’t rung, she no longer receives voice messages or WhatsApp messages from her 21-year-old son, who told her about his adventures at school, his fleeting romances, his parties outside of school. Normal or simply to tell him the following:
“That he loved me, that he loved me, ‘I’ll talk to you later, I love you so much, bro…’ And that… Man, it’s hard, right now I can tell you that I love him a lot, I don’t know, I have no proof that he could be okay, but I also have no proof that my son is sick.”
Mario has Walking throughout the Mexican Republic, he has traveled to countries he never thought he would visit, from the United States to Switzerland, Carrying his son’s photograph in his wallet and on the banner, a picture taken months before entering the Rural that he never imagined would travel the entire world and that is the last one he has of him.
“When he told me he was going to study at a normal school, I was very angry. I definitely didn’t want to go. Guerrero was very far away, just imagine. I didn’t know the context of Guerrero. I didn’t know what deaths were like there, because in Tlaxcala it’s not common to see that kind of dismemberment of human beings or eating them,” he commented.
Your tastes and “happy eye…”
César Manuel González Hernández was 21 years old when he disappeared on September 26, 2014was traveling in one of the five hijacked trucks and was heading to Iguala, Guerrero, to collect money, travel to Mexico City and participate in the march on October 2.
According to the investigation, he and his companions were arrested by municipal police at the intersection of Juan N. Álvarez Street and taken in vans to the municipality of Cocula.
Before leaving Tlaxcala, His father remembers him as a happy boy, attentive, polite and very attracted to girls, the weakest part of his “black”, because it was common for him to have many girlfriends or some adventures in his native Huamantla, but without disrespecting or taking advantage of anyone.
“My black He was one of those guys you liked, he won your trust and helped you, he was never one of those brawlers, he was more of a womanizer, the bastard, he had about three of them around here and one of them called me to ask me how I was, she told me to calm down and that everything would be okay,” with a knowing smile Don Mario recalled his son’s love affairs.
Cesar liked football, without a specific team, he would practice from time to time, but his quality, says his father, was that of “making the girls fall in love with him and he was thin, light-skinned and had a great sense of humor, he won the attention of the girls, you don’t know… They followed him a lot and his mother got very angry.”
Although he was not very dedicated to music, this young man liked banda songs, those that are dedicated to women to conquer them or to show them that love will be eternal. Dressed in jeans and, sometimes, with boots, because the occasion demanded it…
“He was always clean, that’s why I was surprised that he went to Guerrero and in the countryside, that wasn’t his thing.”
The insatiable search
One day before Caesar disappeared with his companions in the city of Igualacalled Don Mario, told him that after the march on October 2nd in the Mexican capital, he would visit him Huamantlahe asked permission to bring some companions to eat, the father agreed and prepared everything necessary to receive the delegation.
“I was waiting for his call, nothing, no, I spoke to him on the phone and I spoke to him on the phone, no… I spoke to him on the phone all night, about 100 times… And he didn’t answer me.”
The call was on September 25th and Mario will hardly forget that date, because he talked about it with his wife, Doña Hilda, with whom he agreed that they would make a special meal for their boy, what he liked most was enchiladas with steaks:
“That was what my boy liked the most, I would buy him some really big pieces, also for his friends, but just to see the bastard happy”.
After learning of his son’s disappearance, Don Mario packed his things and together with his wife left Huamantlawithout having first entrusted their two daughters to their in-laws, they set off towards Ayotzinapa, without knowing or meeting anyone. It was an adventure that lasted almost a day on the road, but the excitement of finding it was greater.
“Wow, it’s really hard, really hard, carrying an incredible amount of pain, and apart from that, my health situation is changing, the tiredness, apparently we say we’re not tired, but the body is already exhausted, it’s definitely been a terror for the whole family,” recalls an extremely tired Mario.
It’s been 10 years sinceand suffer, to go up, to search, to go down and to come up against an increasingly unbearable reality, but this Don Mario, strong and difficult to bend and cry over, will he resist? “I’m not prepared for that, I don’t know what I would do…”
