JE #8

I would like to think that I am very knowledgeable of the femicides in Juarez.  I have read of the murders in The El Paso Times since the early 2000s.  I read la Profe's novel, Desert Blood: The Juarez Murders when it was first published.  I also took la Profe's class, Death, Gender, and the Border last fall quarter.  I feel like I am well-versed in the scholarly works and the cultural productions focusing on the femicides of Juarez.  As Ethne Lubheid argues in Entry Denied, rape is a tool for controlling immigrant women.  This applies to the women who work in the maquiladoras in Juarez and those who inhabit the southern side of the border.  Rape is a tool of colonization against women and has been used since the Spanish first arrived in the Caribbean and Mexico.  Rape shows the women who is boss.  Mexican women along the border and those who immigrate to the U.S. are raped in order to reinforce the gender hierarchy.  Mexican immigrant women realize that there is no gender equity north of the border.  Rape keeps women in a subservient, subjugated position.  The monstrous Shadow Beast is at its worst in regards to the femicides of Juarez.  The patriarchy of Mexico and the U.S. converge on the bodies of the poor, brown, females.  Racism and misogyny intersect in the incisions on the flesh of these women.  Colonization has entrenched the hatred of women in both countries.  Although wealthy, White women are victims of misogyny at times, poor women of color more often bear the burden of our society's violence.  La Profe's novel is much more effective at raising the mainstream consciousness of the femicides, although I do like Gregory Nava's film, Bordertown.  La Profe's novel contextualizes the femicides in a popular genre of literature, the mystery genre, in order to lure the reader into an exciting, page-turning thriller.  Meanwhile, the reader is educated regarding border culture, homophobia in a Chicana/o context, and governmental corruption.  Bordertown is much better than I thought it would be, but it is somewhat sensationalistic.  What I think is really powerful is Jennifer Lopez's character discovering her Chicanidad.