JE #8

                Before taking this Chicano Studies course, I knew very little of the Juarez femicides, if anything at all.  La Profesora’s discussion of the homicides with us in class and the lecture in which she interweaved the contents of Entry Denied with the narrative of Desert Blood really painted a distressing and poignant image of how deeply rooted and important an issue it is.  Had I ever learned about these many murders, I would have wondered who was committing them and why, but I never would have imagined that it could be traced to NAFTA and its long-lasting implications for the borderlands. 

                Chapter 5 of Entry Denied was particularly impactful because of the frankness with which is connects rape, asylum, and the United States Border Patrol and immigration system.  It admits that there is an unspoken system of protection among perpetrators in border institutions.  The author goes on to shed light on the fact that, should these women seeking physical protection in the form of political asylum even be acknowledged as rape victims or abuse survivors, there are still held back by fewer economic and educational opportunities as well as by the roles they are expected to fill.  In the novel, Chapter 24 was exceptionally difficult for me to read.  It is the first time the reader follows the sequestered Irene to the place she’s kept.  Her terror reads on the page as clearly as day, and the unnerving behavior of her kidnappers and their collaborators shocked me.  It is heartrending to see how hard Irene tries to stay in control of herself in this otherwise essentially hopeless situation.

                Together, the two books serve to form a cohesive understanding of the culture of silence that has been fostered along the United States-Mexican border.  This understanding is taken to a visual and cinematic format for the masses through the film Bordertown.  I thought this film was effective in getting me to look at a visual representation of what these stories and facts really look like, what they mean emotionally for the women who have to go through it and for the people who try to fight it.