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by Alicia Gaspar de Alba
Since 1993, close to 500 young, poor, brown women have been found brutally murdered in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, across
the border from El Paso, Texas, not including hundreds of others who have been reported missing and still have not been found.
Desert Blood: The Juárez Murders, a mystery novel about this fourteen-year crime-wave, was released by Arte Publico Press
in March 2005. This website provides more information about the author, the book, the book tour, and the issue of the Juárez
murders.
BREAKING NEWS!!! Desert Blood will be coming out in paperback in Fall 2007. Also, Desert Blood en español will be coming
out in 2008, translated by the incomparable Juarez poet and writer, Rosario Sanmiguel.
Desert Blood in Italian! IL DESERTO DELLE MORTI SILENZIOSE: I Femincidi di Juarez (Desert of the Silent Dead: The
Feminicides of Juárez) by La Nuova Frontiera is out! Click translations to see the front and back cover.
Translations
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Award Winner!
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| Cover graphic art: "Las muertas de Juárez reclaman justicia" by Segundo Pérez |
New Mystery Novel Explores the Violent Deaths
of Young Women Along the US/Mexico Border
It is the summer of 1998. For five years over a hundred mangled and desecrated bodies have been found dumped on the Chihuahua
desert outside of Juárez, México, just across the river from El Paso, Texas. The perpetrators of the ever-rising number of
violent deaths target poor young women, terrifying inhabitants of both sides of the border. El Paso native Ivon Villa has
returned to her hometown to adopt the baby of Cecilia, a pregnant maquiladora worker in Juárez. When Cecilia turns up strangled
and disemboweled in the desert, Ivon is thrown into the churning chaos of abuse and murder. Even as the rapes and killings
of "girls from the south" continue-their tragic stories written in desert blood-a conspiracy covers up the crimes
that implicate everyone from the Maquiladora Association to the Border Patrol. When Ivon's younger sister gets kidnapped
in Juárez, Ivon knows that it's up to her to find her sister, whatever it takes. Despite the sharp warnings she gets from
family, friends, and nervous officials, Ivon's investigation moves her deeper and deeper into the labyrinth of silence.
From acclaimed poet and prose-writer, Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Desert Blood is a gripping thriller that ponders the effects
of patriarchy, gender identity, border culture, transnationalism, and globalization on an international crisis.
| photo by Carol Petersen |
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| "Desert Blood" poster by Alma López |
Who or what is killing the poor, young, brown women of Juárez?
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