In the globalized world that we find ourselves in, it has become increasingly important to actively pay attention to world events. As countries around the world become more and more interconnected, occurrences that take place on the other side of the world begin to affect us in a more substantial way than we may expect. Unfortunately, women have only been granted the right to be directly involved in international politics for a handful of decades, and this has been a huge setback; many females of this generation do not take advantage of their rights and continue to be ignorant of what goes around in their surroundings. In “Beyond the Global Victim,” Cynthia Enloe discusses how “feminists need to pay attention to international issues not only because international politics affects our futures but also because patriarchy creates gendered divisions of labor…international politics leads to both inequalities among women and the possibilities of organizing against those inequalities” (496). If feminists take the initiative to make themselves aware of world events, they will be capable of spreading information with other women. As a component of our Women’s Studies course, we, as feminists, are attempting to make both men and women aware about the homogenized idea of beauty and how it affects both genders in their personal perceptions beauty and their general beauty regimens. Our job is simplified because there is a lot of information at our disposal; a lot of it is provided by dominant media outlets, so our resources are easily accessed. How does one successfully shed light on a major event that has been poorly publicized? The ongoing Juarez murders that started in 1993 is an example of one of the world’s most troubling unsolved criminal rampages; unfortunately most people have never heard of them. I have come across a great deal of trouble finding news reports about the Juarez murders, and the ones I find are not from mainstream publications. Fortunately, in the last few years, feminists have begun to strengthen the amount of publicity received by the Juarez murders, with the release of Laurdes Portillo’s Senorita Extravida, and the publication of Alicia Gaspar de Alba’s Desert Blood.
Gaspar de Alba’s book gives readers an in-depth look into the experience faced by a family who has directly been affected by the Juarez murders. Protagonist Ivon Villa’s sister, Irene, is kidnapped while she as at a party across the border in Juarez. The majority of the plot focuses on Ivon’s desperate search for Irene while she seals with her accusatory mother and corrupt officials. As realistic the story is, however, Gaspar de Alba states in her disclaimer that this is a fictional account. “All of the main characters in this story are fictional, “she says (v). Any similarities to living or dead people are purely coincidental…Some readers who are familiar with the “maquiladora murders” may recognized certain details about a given crime and find that they don’t match “what really happened.” Because this is a fictionalized account of true events, I have taken liberties with chronologies and facts” (v). The question that rises then is if Desert Blood can be considered a legitimate source of information about the Juarez murders. Having watched Senorita Extravida, which is a very accurate documentary, I can see that the points that matter, including statistics and descriptions of victims are all true. Thus, readers will not get the wrong idea from reading this fictional account about the Juarez murders. Additionally, if this book was not fiction, Gaspar de Alba wouldn’t necessarily be able to incorporate all the additional themes she was able to fit in, such as homosexuality, gay parenting, patriarchy, globalization and the field of women’s studies, and discuss them in depth. By not providing the public with a conventional account of the Juarez murders, Gaspar de Alba still succeeds in informing readers about the ongoing crisis while educating them about other issues they are connected to; Desert Blood should be considered a piece of feminist publicity regarding the Juarez murders.
- Lavanya
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