Artists, Writers, Academics Call for Sheinbaum to Welcome Gaza Orphans

This article originally appeared in the June 26, 2026 edition of Proceso.

A group of over 200 writers, poets, artists and academics from different parts of the country asked President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo to intervene so that Mexico receives Gazan children orphaned by the war and gives them food and shelter.

In a public letter titled “A Home for the Orphaned Children of Gaza,” dated June 24, the signatories requested the “valuable diplomatic and managerial intervention” of the federal leader, with the following purpose:

“May it join and enrich Mexico’s valuable legacy in the area of ​​asylum and open the doors of our country to Gazan orphans, in order to provide them with the food and shelter that a bloody war, which they did not undertake, robbed them of.”

In their argument, they asserted that Mexico has had a “long and valuable tradition of hospitality for those who are victims of wars and totalitarian governments.”

And they listed the history: “We gave shelter to the children of Morelia and the rest of the Spanish exiles; to the Guatemalans who fled their country due to the overthrow of President Jacobo Árbenz; also to the Argentines, Chileans, and Uruguayans who fled dictatorships in the Southern Cone; as well as to Central Americans and, recently, to Evo Morales, victim of a coup d’état, among others.”

It is not our intention to ask you, under any circumstances, to facilitate the expulsion of Palestinians from their own land, but rather to save the lives of children who have lost everything,

The signatories clarified: “It is not our intention to ask you, under any circumstances, to facilitate the expulsion of Palestinians from their own land, but rather to save the lives of children who have lost everything, so that in our country they can regain the joy of life, hope, and a home.”

In the text, they added “aware of your sensitivity, your solidarity with just national and international causes, the hospitable ethic that characterizes us, and based on the Mexican Humanism that you uphold in the name of the nation, we trust that our request will be received with sympathy and addressed appropriately.”

In the letter addressed to Sheinbaum Pardo, the signatories based their request on data about the ongoing war in the Middle East:

“The genocide and hunger war in Gaza, waged for Israel’s regional leadership and global power, is one of the most heinous crimes in recent history. From October 7, 2023, to date, the grim death toll has reached 55,500.”

They also quoted the magazine “Lance” as saying that the death toll “could be thousands more, buried in the rubble, victims of forced disappearance, lack of medical care, and malnutrition, due to the blockade of international humanitarian aid and the use of hunger as a weapon of extermination.”

That “chilling figure,” they emphasized, could rise to 186,000 Gazans, or 8% of the population. Furthermore, “The organization Airwars and the British weekly The Sunday Times, which investigate the damage suffered by civilians in wars, report that 1,800 families have lost several members.”

In passing, they cited “shocking” data from UNICEF: “18,000 orphans in Gaza, many of them without any family.”

The petition initiative for the benefit of Gazan children orphaned by war is signed by Leticia Luna (poet and academic), Rosario Herrera Guido (academic and writer), Patricia Camacho Quintos (poet and dance researcher), Marco Tulio Lailson (poet and academic), Roberto Ferreyra (visual artist, Mexico-Chicago), Alfredo Peñuelas Rivas (writer), Edné Balmori Olea (designer), Aldo Herrera (communications expert) and Javier Contreras Villaseñor (poet and dance academic).

They are followed by a list of 200 names of poets, writers, academics, political scientists, journalists, musicians, singer-songwriters, diplomats, visual artists, editors, professors, historians, playwrights, dancers, choreographers, activists, translators, ethnomusicologists, researchers, stage creators, actors, video makers, documentary filmmakers, storytellers, essayists, photographers, philosophers, linguists, sociologists, painters, communicators, painters, museologists, architects, animal rights activists, a magistrate, visual artists, political analysts, human rights teachers, lawyers, pianists, illustrators, content creators, scientists and cultural managers.

Last Monday, the 23rd, in her morning press conference at the National Palace, President Claudia Sheinbaum expressed her recognition of the Palestinian State and the State of Israel in the Middle East conflict and condemned the attacks on the civilian population in that region without specifying the attackers; however, she avoided commenting on the genocide, and has refused demands to break relations with Israel.