Erguete: the strength of mothers

The MARCO in Vigo hosts the exhibition Érguete la huella de las madres, an exhibition that pays tribute to the Galician women who, in the eighties and nineties, transformed pain into a fight to combat the drug trafficking that ravaged their community. When heroin entered Spain through the Galician coasts, many families saw their sons and daughters become victims of an addiction that destroyed lives and entire families. The mothers of Érguete decided that they could not sit idly by and turned their motherhood into a tool for social transformation.

The exhibition reviews the history of this association, created in 1985, when a group of mothers came together to denounce the institutional passivity and impunity with which drug traffickers operated in Galicia. With banners, protests and direct actions, they managed not only to make the problem visible, but also to pressure the authorities to change laws and promote actions against drug trafficking. The exhibition presents archive images of the demonstrations and performances that these women carried out to make their voices heard, from protests in front of the houses of major drug traffickers to mass marches that shook the collective conscience.

This struggle was not without its difficulties. The mothers of Érguete were stigmatized and ridiculed, labeled "crazy" or "terrorists" by those who did not want to see the reality. However, they persisted, demonstrating that their movement was a necessary response to the humanitarian crisis posed by massive drug addiction. The exhibition collects testimonies and documentary material that demonstrate how this struggle changed the social perception of drug addiction and achieved key legislative reforms in the field of justice and security.

Beyond its political impact, Érguete la huella de las madres also focuses on the emotional and personal impact that this struggle had on its protagonists. The exhibition includes interviews and photographs that portray their courage, their sisterhood and their determination to defend their sons and daughters in a society that often blamed them. Through a selection of works by contemporary artists such as Eugènia Balcells , Cecilia Barriga , Javier Codesal , Jana Leo and Bea Rey , among others, it reflects on the stigma of drug addiction and the role of women in building social movements. The exhibition also connects with other movements of activist mothers, such as the Madres de Plaza de Mayo in Argentina or the Mujeres de Chile (MUDECHI) . They all share the same idea, personal pain becomes a political tool capable of transforming power structures and demanding justice.

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