17-year-old Estela Narvaez Flores was suddenly beaten up in September during the Aalsmeer festival week. The physical damage she suffered is still visible, but she is also having a hard time mentally. Together with NH, Estela and her mother Sanne look back on a difficult year.
The two agree that the event has left a significant mark on their year. “I don’t really dare to do anything anymore,” Estela answers when reporter Celine Sulsters asks how she is doing. “My life now is going to school and then straight back home. I no longer walk to school alone. Always with a friend.”
The girl has been asked by friends to go to a festival on New Year’s Eve, but she stays at home anyway. She no longer goes to places where there are too many people. “I think that’s the worst,” says mother Sanne Baartman. “That she is no longer so free.”
Crooked nose
She hopes that the trauma therapy her daughter will start in January will slowly change that. The physical harm that the unknown boy inflicted on Estela makes processing the trauma more difficult. He broke her nose with his fist that night. It was subsequently broken back, but is still crooked.
“Every time she looks in the mirror, she is reminded of it,” Sanne says. Estela adds: “I also see it when, for example, I take pictures of myself on Snapchat or when others take pictures of me. Then I look at my nose every time.” She hopes that a plastic surgeon can make her nose look like it used to.
Just abused
That particular evening in September starts off nicely: Estela, as is often the case, dances happily with her friends. When a group of partygoers form a so-called ‘mosh pit’ (circle of jumping people) towards the end, she thinks it’s all getting a bit too rough and decides to step aside for a while.
“Then I was pushed into the middle of it and dropped the fan I had in my hand. Someone saw that a boy had taken it and I asked for it back,” Estela told NH at the time. When the girl tries to take the fan back herself, the unknown boy suddenly lashes out.
“The next thing I know, I got punched in the nose from the left side. My friends said there was blood all over my shirt.” The perpetrator quickly runs away, while Estela is left with a broken nose.
Video images of the incident and pressure from the environment ultimately ensure that a suspect reports to the police. Estela and her family are waiting for a date when he will appear in court. It weighs heavily on everyone. “You just feel such powerlessness and anger,” Sanne explains.
Estela and her mother are sorry that the perpetrator has not yet been heard from. By sharing the story they hope to make him, but also other young people, think. Sanne: “If just one person thinks: I should never do this, I will be happy. Young people who do these kinds of things often do not understand the suffering they cause. If something like this happens to you in your youth, you will carry it with you for the rest of your life. with you.”