A few weeks after I returned to Peru in 2019, I read about the high numbers of femicides and sexual assaults that had occurred that year. The statistics didn’t include Venezuelan migrant women.
I knew I wanted to photograph this community without focusing on the violence that had become too common in their lives; it seemed unnecessary and traumatising. I also didn’t want to produce the same images we regularly see of migration.
When I met Adriana, one of the youngest women I photographed for my series, Silence of Dawn, she told me the worst part of her experience of living in Peru was when she went to bed. In her sleep, she relives the three months she walked across Venezuela with her son, wearing a pair of Crocs and dragging a broken suitcase behind her.
I walked to Peru followed by journalists who photographed my son while we crossed the mountains of Colombia without shoes or a jacket. I was homeless in Venezuela, that is why I left. There are moments when I look back and realise we both could have died.”
Adriana says she was sexually assaulted in Cucuta, Colombia, after leaving Venezuela in January 2020. She and her son and arrived in Lima in March 2020.
In Lima, she sold coffee on the street, and every time she returned safely home, she said she counted her blessings.
In Peru, it has become common to view Venezuelan women as sex workers, a stereotype that impacts every aspect of their lives. The women I met openly shared their experiences as I tried to understand why they were being treated this way.
I took the photo above as Adriana played with her son, Mateo. She teased him, pretending to be sick and to fall asleep. Mateo’s tenderness, as he offered his mum crackers, highlighted his desire for play, where time and context don’t exist.
Their mundane possessions held a world of significance that connected them to a home that no longer existed. Adriana said all of the decisions she has made were for her son. The risks she has taken every day since leaving home were for him.
I asked her to write down the moments that had shaped her life as a migrant. The photos felt incomplete without the emotion conveyed by the overlaid handwriting. I wanted everyone I photographed to be involved in the process. Besides craving connection, it was important they felt safe in sharing their world, in a place where they were misunderstood.
• Daniela Rivera Antara is a photographer and writer who was born in Peru and raised between Lima and Australia. Her work looks at gender-related issues, particularly of displacement, inequality and identity
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