100+ Red Shoes Line Boston Common to Mark Lives Lost to Gender Violence
An installation by Mexican artist Elina Chauvet, organized with local youth groups, stands in the shadow of the State House.
By David Almasi ·
More than 100 painted red shoes sat lined up on the Boston Common on Wednesday morning.
The display, titled Zapatos Rojos, honors individuals who died from gender-based violence. Mexican artist Elina Chauvet created the work after her sister died from domestic violence. She first debuted the project in Mexico in 2009 and has since installed it in Norway, Spain, and Argentina.
Lawyers for Civil Rights organized the Boston version with partners including Sociedad Latina, Chica Project, and We Are ALX. Members of these groups collected and painted the shoes. They also attended workshops on legal protections, such as restraining orders, designed to help connect survivors with resources. This event followed the recent unveiling of the organization's inaugural artist-in-residence program earlier this month.
Mirian Albert, a senior attorney at Lawyers for Civil Rights, explained that the group uses art to clarify complex legal issues. She noted that while legal matters can feel abstract, they have daily impacts on people. Albert said, “Legal issues can be really abstract sometimes, but obviously they have real implications for people on the ground every day.”
Angelica Rodriguez, program director of the Roxbury-based group Sociedad Latina, said her students gathered the more than 100 shoes. Rodriguez describes the approach as artivism, a method to show immigrant youth that their voices are heard. She emphasized the symbolic power of the location. “Showing up in Boston Common and having the State House right behind is just a visual statement of how important it is to come together as a community,” Rodriguez said.
The shoes remain on display at the Boston Common.
