Since You Arrived, My Heart Stopped Belonging to Me

By: Jennifer Vintzileos

Every year thousands of migrants leave Central America and try to find their way towards a better life in the United States. There are many who find their way to the border, but then there are those that are the focus of Since You Arrived, My Heart Stopped Belonging to Me. Those that disappear once they reach Mexico have inspired a group called The Mothers and Family Members of the Caravan of Mothers of Missing Migrants to travel through Mexico to find them. Through their stories, the pain and struggle of locating the missing brings together these women towards one common goal: the hope that they can find their loved ones.

While many men and women remain missing, the mothers of the missing migrants have taken it upon themselves to start a search for their loved ones. Going town to town with the faces of the missing on laminated placards, their stories are provided over the footage. For one mother her son was heading to the United States to make money for his siblings education. Another mother shares how her daughter fled El Salvador when a gang member took an interest in her romantically. In their journey to each town and conversation with citizens, pieces of the puzzle come together. And for some of those mothers, they are reunited with their loved ones. For others, they never give up hope.

Director Erin Semine Kökdil captures the journey that each of these women go through to find their children and loved ones. For the mothers there is no sense of giving up, even when they are met with no information from the towns they travel to. There is only determination and strength in their pursuit of the truth. One of the most poignant scenes of the documentary was listening to a mother talk about her medical issues, her doctor saying that this persistence in locating her son was only exacerbating her diabetes. But her own health was not important to her, rather that she would dream of her son telling her that it wouldn’t be long before she saw him again—and that is why she was determined to keep going. For these women there is no giving up, they bond together through their pain and create a camaraderie. They won’t be satisfied until they have answers to bring home.

As I watched the mothers go by bus, boat and foot through Mexico the message became clear: like many, these mothers are ready to go the distance for their children. It’s in our blood. And the sacrifices that these mothers make in their own life are worth it, if only to hug their children once again.