J.E. #8

Growing up in a Mexican household where both my parents were immigrants meant, for me at least, that our ties to Mexico were still pretty strong. Because my dad sent money to his family in Yucatan and he sometimes, cuando le agarraba la locura, would go to Yucatan to deliver this money, I knew about the Juarez murders. My dad needed to know where it was safe to go. Even though he did not fit into the category of women being murdered, he felt it was important for our family to know what he saw in Mexico because ultimately, his plan was for us to move to Mexico. Here and there we would also see reports of the murders in the news, but the stories never really captured la gravedad del asunto.

After reading both La Profe's book and Entry Denied, the femicides became much more real to me. Although I knew about this, I was and (continue to be) far removed from the place in which this is happening. This a completely different border than the one I grew up knowing, so for the longest time I didn't feel like this issue affected me and my family directly. We lived in Los Angeles, we didn't work in maquilas, we weren't from Juarez. Profe's book changed my mindset completely.

Both Entry Denied  and Desert Blood worked so well in providing me an actual context to the murders that for so long, for so many people, have made no sense at all. I can't pick a specific chapter in Lubheid's book that made a significant impact on my understanding of the issue because the whole book did. The conclusion definitely helped me piece all the types of legislation in a cohesive way. This was the historical context I was missing. From Profe's book, although it all impacted me the same and it was all a really good read, chapter 45, page 331 that really did it for me. It was when Ivon began to piece together how NAFTA, the maquiladoras, and the U.S. gov't. all exploited women, their sexuality, and their bodies when I began to really understand how deep this issue goes. The fact that this was written as a narrative also provided me with the social context I was missing, specifically the ways of the El Paso-Juarez border.

In contrast, Nava's film did not do much in regards of my "consciousness" of the issue. It was definitely and entertaining film; however, I feel like it was greatly driven by the plot and JLo's plight as opposed to using the characters and the plot as a tool to bring light to the issue at hand.