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

Prior to this class, I encountered this Tree of Death in the Folwer Museum at UCLA with my mother created in memory of the Juarez femicides. My mother talked about young woman at the south of border working in factories and murders plaguing their lives in Juarez. I asked her why? She said, “Mija no se pero ten cuidado cuando sales.” She planted the seed of my curiosity about the femicides and no one else could answer my questions of why?, who?, how?, or what?. 

Entry Denied by Ethne Lubheid and Desert Blood by la Profe gave me answers or clues to my questions. According to Eithne, “Rapes of women of color, poor women, and ‘unchaste’ women often did not count within the official categories of rape, and these exclusions also shape contemporary institutional responses.” (Entry Denied, 104) making it clear why these femicides are not reported or hidden in the shadows. Historically the border has been keeping out women that do not fit the white heteropatriarchy of America promoting a white culture. Also, American policies especially NAFTA are driving these women to the border for work. There isn’t a particular chapter in Desert Blood that moved me or shocked me the most on its own. The chapters that moved me were the ones in Irene’s perspective because she is in this state of Nepantla subjected to the experience of brutality inflicted on other women of Juarez. Gregory Nava’s film "Bordertown" allowed me to visualize the deaths at the border making the femicides more horrendous. These femicides have been gnawing at my soul ever since I became more informed by Entry Denied, Desert Blood, and "Bordertown".