JE#8: Murder, Misogyny, and U.S. Immigration Policy

I fortunately had the opportunity of meeting really conscious femtors and mentors in the beginnings of my journey through academia. Movie nights, book talks, and presentations in our different spaces usually constituted conversations around the murdered womyn of Juarez and how the various factors that lead up to the murders continue to exist. The femicides have really driven home what the definition and ultimate consequence of patriarchy is. Historically speaking the murders have been occurring since 1992 after the signing of the NAFTA and politics hasn't done anything to bring an end to these murders but rather has seen that systems of power benefit from the exploited labor of these working womyn. But further receiving understanding and knowledge from Lubheids Entry Denied, I was able to see that these mysoginistic murders are a part of a greater cycle of policing undesirables at the border. It was putting words to the thoughts that pass through mind, when I saw that America's image of who constitutes the american identity is who gets to pass through its borders. When I read Desert Blood over the course of this past summer, the chapter when Irene is found missing. The feeling of loss really hit home for the main character, Ivon, when you realize that she's spent energy trying to understand why these murders have been happening never really thinking that it would impact her household. Similar to that sort of response, I feel as though people that have a vague understanding that the murders are occurring should realize and treat the mass murders as something that could affect them. 

In watching Bordertown, I got a feel for the true complexities of the femicides not just for the womyn that are being killed but for latinas in the US as well. These murders also play to the value that the US government has for brown womyn and that's from little to almost no respect. As it was pointed out in desert blood, american and mexican systems of power view brown womyn as they would a disposable penny.  

[Here's a link to one of the presentations I've created about the Femicides to share with some spaces]
http://prezi.com/c4fqwultlvlh/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy