Cultural Representations of Feminicidio at the US-Mexico Border

Since the early 1990s, the repeated murders of women from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico have become something of a global cause célèbre. Cultural Representations of Feminicidio at the US-Mexico Border examines creative responses to these acts of violence. It reveals how theatre, art, film, fiction and other popular cultural forms seek to remember and mourn the female victims of violent death in the city at the same time as they interrogate the political, legal and societal structures that produce the crimes. Different chapters examine the varying art forms to engage with Ciudad Juárez's feminicidal wave. Finnegan discusses Àlex Rigola's theatrical adaptation of Roberto Bolaño's novel 2666 by Teatre Lliure in Barcelona as well as painting about the victims of feminicidio by Irish painter Brian Maguire. There is analysis of documentary film about Ciudad Juárez, including Lourdes Portillo's acclaimed Señorita Extraviada (2001). The final chapter turns its attention to writing about feminicide and examines testimonial and crime fiction narratives like the mystery novel Desert Blood: The Juárez Murders by Alicia Gaspar de Alba, among other examples. By drawing on a range of artistic responses to the murders in Ciudad Juárez, Cultural Representations of Feminicidio at the US-Mexico Border shows how art, film, theatre and fiction can unsettle official narratives about the crimes and undo the static paradigms that are frequently used to interpret them.

Nuala Finnegan is Professor in the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies at University College Cork, Ireland, and the Director of the Centre for Mexican Studies. Her research interests lie in Mexican cultural studies with a particular focus on gender.

Introduction: No nos cabe tanta muerte [Unbearable Deaths] Chapter One: Framing Feminicidio: The Spectral Politics of Death in Ciudad Juárez Chapter Two: Sacrificial Screams: Excess in Àlex Rigola's Stage Adaptation of 2666 Chapter Three: Remember Them: Ethics and Witnessing in Artistic Responses to Feminicide Chapter Four: Resilience and Renewal in Documentary Film about Feminicidio in Ciudad Juárez Chapter Five: Toward an Activist Poetics in Fiction about Feminicidio in Ciudad Juárez Conclusion: Notes Towards the Possible, Appendix