Date of Award

2009

Type

Thesis

Major

Modern Language and Culture - Spanish Literature and Culture Track

Degree Type

Bachelor of Arts in Spanish

Department

Modern & Classical Languages

First Advisor

Alyce Cook

Abstract

Olga Perez was a typical 20-year-old Mexican girl (Valdez 7). Coming from a poor family, she worked at a local shoe store in Juarez to raise money for college (Valdez 7). Wanting to see her daughter attain her dream of receiving higher education, Olga's mother. Irma. also worked several jobs, including selling hamburgers and hotdogs in front of her house, selling used clothing, and serving as a part-time housekeeper (Valdez 7-8). One evening Olga did not return home after a meeting (Valdez 7). It can be assumed that Irma. being Olga's mother, experienced a wide variety of emotions, including sadness, fear, and anger, upon realizing that her daughter was missing. Irma's worst fear came true upon finding out that her daughter had, indeed, been killed. According to an article by Aileen B. Flores and Diana Rodriguez. El Paso Times journalists who have researched femicides (systematic murders of women) (Valdez 105). "nearly 750 girls and women have been murdered in Juarez since 1993, and 36 were reported missing this year (2009)"* (elpasotimes.com ). To say that these women were killed does not adequately describe their fate: they were victims of both mutilation and murder. Many women. Olga for example, have had their bodies dismembered—with their breasts having been stabbed, ripped, or bitten off (Valdez 8). Two crucial questions that the present thesis will address are who is committing the murders and why. We will address the latter question first, in hopes that understanding the reasoning behind the crimes will suggest who might be committing them.

Just as any mother would. Irma attempted to discover what happened to her daughter: however, her search for Olga's murderer/s only brought to the light the powerlessness of her position in society. Instead of attempting to solve the murders, Mexican officials displaced the blame. According to Valdez. the reason why these men attempt to transpose the blame stems from the machismo culture which has long since existed in Mexican culture. She states, "'machismo" manifests itself in domestic violence and in the attitude of the police who belittle reports of sexual assaults of family violence" (14). Mexican officials are unmistakably involved in the murders, but to take blame for those murders and/or to defend the families who seek justice for their deceased daughters would be detrimental to the male psyche in a culture where it is a "requirement to prove one's manhood at any cost" (Valdez 14). As Irma Perez says, "What hurts us. the families, most of all is how the police tried to smear the reputations of our girls. They told the news media that they led double lives. They said they were loose girls or prostitutes. I know my daughter and she was none of these things" (Valdez 11).

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Honors Thesis

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