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Alexander Araya Bermdez

Professor Monica Bradley

Barrios y Borders: Lenguaje e Identidad en los grupos minoritarios

17 Jun 2017

The Unimportant Inditas

Literature, sometimes, brings to our attention happenings that media tend to

hide. Some stories are diminished with the intention of avoiding questioning, additional

interrogating, and effort. Consequently, a lot of injustices remain unknown, victims

unavenged, and criminals unpunished. On this paper, I will make use of The

Maquiladora Murders by Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Death in the Desert: The Women of

Ciudad Juarez by Marjorie Agosn, and Letter from Juarez by Mariana Katzarova, to

give these murdered women a face, analyze the possible causes of their murders, and

introduce some possible solutions.

It would be totally unfair to start talking about such an important happening

without making a stop and dignifying these women from Juarez. The most important

sign of appreciation and respect one could show is dignifying the victim, giving them a

identity, and validate their sacrifice as a something that will not be unnoticed. But, who

are these women that have been murdered in Juarez for decades now? The task of

giving them all a name and a complete identify is impossible, as uncountable the victims

are; nonetheless, that should not stop us from giving them an identity as a group of

people that have undergone the same faith. Different from what we could initially think,

the murdered women in Juarez are not inhabitants of that location in the north of

Mexico. These brave women are trying to escape from a hard reality in counties from
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different states in southern Mexico. As Gaspar de Alba mentions: [the] majority of the

victims shared the same demographics [] (151). She continues to re-affirm that the

victims do not live in Juarez, but are outsiders. They are poor migrants from small

villages and distant cities from all over Mexico. Besides, they are women that moved to

Juarez with the intention, not to cross the border to the United States, but to get a job in

one of the Maquilas. Gaspar de Alba adds that most of them are women between 12

and 23 years old, thin, short, with black hair and dark skin (151). We need to clarify that

the group identity of these women is not only built on their physical appearance, but

also on their personality traits: they are scaping from starving situations where their

seeks for freedom and independence is constrained. From a literary point of view,

Marjorie Agosin wrote:

[] las desaparecidas de Juarez son pobres

Sus vidas son oscuras como su piel

Vienen de lugares extraos en la zona de Chihuahua

Algunos de Durango.

Son delgadas y jvenes

Sin caras de porcelana.

Nadie conoce sus apellidos:

[]

Nadie desea conmemorar sus muertes

Las seoritas extraviadas de Juarez

No tienen dinero

Mejor no hablar de ellas (199).

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Now that we have dug into the identity of the victims, we need to understand the

different causes that might have caused their murders. Marjorie Agosin wrote:

Algunas llegan

Algunas regresan.

Otras se encuentran como amapolas

Muertas en los desiertos

Algunos ya nadie recuerda [] (197).

Gaspar de Albas paper strongly reinforces that: these crimes are more than

murder: they are ritual acts of pure and unadulterated hatred and brutality toward the

impoverished mestiza female body (154). The writer refers to the fact that there are

different hypotheses about the motif of these murders, but not matter which that is, the

cruelty and the impact it has it is condemnable. Some theories mention an American

serial killer, a Satanic cult, or even an underground market for human organs. But the

truth is that there are two hypotheses with wider proof. The first implicates a gang of

teenage drug-runners known as Los Rebeldes, led by a guy called El Diablo. They were

imprisoned after a mild investigation that linked them with an Egyptian chemist that had

also been taken to jail due to suspicious activities in the area and his criminal record

from the US. The group was accused of killing inditas US$1200 each; however, they

were released except for El Diablo, whose dental impression matched with the marks in

one of the bodies that were found. The latter inculpated a band of drug-addicted bus

drivers called Los Choferes, who were responsible for the transportation of employees

to the factories they worked for. The band was accused of raping and killing women

after getting high. After reading about these possible hypotheses, the doubt does not
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vanish, as the real cause is not clear yet. We might want to discard groups against

immigration, as we have seen the victims are not trying to become dreamers.

Nevertheless, we must be cautious, as we are still missing facts, proofs. At the end, and

after not knowing the truth, Agosin summarizes it quite well:

Y la noche en Juarez er una espejo perverse

Donde el suspiro de la muerte posaba sus cuencas

Y sus trofeos.

Y la noche en esa ciudad de Juarez no tenia ni principio ni fin

Tan solo el miedo

Tan solo la muerte (195).

Leaving rage behind, it is time to consider some of the solutions to this situation.

As Mariana Katzarova said: [s]omebody with resources, power, and impunity continues

to kill young girls in Juarez (589), and we are play and important part. I would like to

keep it simple, and mention three significant ideas that would have an important impact:

consciousness-raising, government commitment, and company compromise. By

consciousness-raising, we need to understand the role we all play as part of the society,

and the role of the different organizations that should not only be informed about the

situation in Juarez, but in constant action in terms of investigation and prevention. We

all can help by acknowledging the problem and spreading the word. The government

needs to really commit with this situation, as well. Mexican authorities need to be

responsible of their inhabitant not matter how close they live to the borders. An

overwhelming description of the government support given by Gaspar de Alba is that

they just help the families cope with the disappearance of their women, and they help
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them find their be-loved sisters and daughter in the morgue (155). This cannot be the

complete response from the government: they need to commit with the prevention of

future murders. Third is companies accountability. As an employer, one just cannot hire

a substitute for some that just disappear: there are a lot of actions that can be taken

from an enterprises perspective. Companies can and must protect their employees.

This should not be understood as a massive investment, but strategic and intelligent

use of resources. Companies can check the history of third-party employees

responsible for transportation, they can optimize their schedule to make transportation

safer, and they can work with the government entities in their region to actively

cooperate with the security of all their contributors.

To conclude, I would like to reinforce the importance of dignifying the sacrifice of

all the victims of murder in Juarez. We need to both the government and employers

should procure the security and general integrity of their people. Equally important, to

acknowledge the fact that Juarez is not, and will not be, the only region in the world

experiencing this type of social problems. Not moving outside the American continent,

we can see a lot of migrants in the Costa Rican border with Nicaragua: people pursuing

a better life. Venezuelan scaping from Maduros regime to different counties like Costa

Rica, Colombia, and Brazil. Expanding our vision, middle east refugees scaping

terrorism organization to Europe, and millions of migrants from isolated Asian countries

moving to a place with better opportunities. None of us is except from having to cope

with a situation like the one hundreds of families have lived in Mexico, and if that does

not raise consciousness, we are failing as humans.