Guillermo del Toro Tweets on Father's Kidnapping, Protests Post-Paris Vengeance
Award-winning director Guillermo del Toro understands the impulse for vengeance after an attack.
The director, who is originally from Mexico, recently tweeted at length about the circumstances of his father's 1997 kidnapping. The perpetrators demanded $1 million in ransom—money that del Toro could not front after sinking his own funds into his first Hollywood film, "Mimic." His father was eventually recovered with the financial assistance of fellow director James Cameron, but he still lives with the reality of that attack and others on his family.
His ten-tweet testimony came on Saturday, in response to the attacks in Paris. He commented on this harrowing episode—during which police offered to let him retaliate against the kidnappers—to illustrate that hate cannot be confronted with hate.
Read the tweets below, courtesy of ReMezcla:
What terror seeks is to provoke hatred- and thus, they will recruit the hated ones, the marginal, the desperate into their ranks.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) November 14, 2015A memory in 8 tweets: During the captivity of my father- a time of enormous pain- two policemen came to see us. They had two proposals.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) November 14, 2015The first was: For 5K, they would give us a room with the kidnappers, tied to a chair. They would provide a lead pipe & 15 minutes alone.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) November 14, 2015The second one: For 10K they would make sure that- when the raid happened- all kidnappers would get killed and we’d get Polaroids.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) November 14, 2015We said no. Absolutely no to both. We felt hatred and pain but could not be a part of the cycle of violence.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) November 14, 201572 days after his capture, my father was liberated.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) November 14, 2015Months passed and several families that had gone through similar ordeals joined in a restaurant to have dinner and exchange support.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) November 14, 2015During dinner: a small commotion. Some people rushed to the end of the long, long table. “What is it, I asked?” “Some photos” someone said.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) November 14, 2015I stayed on my side of the table. Never looked. Perhaps someone had paid? I didn’t want to know.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) November 14, 2015In times like this- when violence breeds violence, I think of that day and pray for wisdom and strength.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) November 14, 2015
(H/t ReMezcla)