In fictive works about the border femicides the police work in two countries (the United States and
Mexico) is described differently. In Stella Pope Duarte's book If I Die in Juárez and in Meredith
Stiehm's and Elwood Reid's Pilot of the series “The Bridge-America” (2013/14 FX/Netflix) the national
police departments of the USA and Mexico are confronted with a femicide¹
. In her book Duarte
integrates a great knowledge of the real situation regarding the femicides in Juárez, after she had
interviewed some of the victim's families. The protagonists of the book are 14-year-old Evita, a poor girl
who was forced to prostitution and to live on the streets, her 19-year-old beautiful cousin Petra who
becomes a maquiladora worker and Mayela, a young Tarahumara Indian girl who is gifted with an
outstanding talent in art. The three girls meet under fateful circumstances to investigate the femicides
occurring in Juárez: they reveal the intrigue of a group of criminals until one of them is tortured and
killed in an inevitably sadistic way too. The Pilot episode of “The Bridge-America” is about the
investigation of a corpse: On the bridge connecting El Paso with Ciudad Juárez, a bisected, mutilated
body is found. The two detectives, Mexican Marco Ruiz and American Sonya Cross decide to cooperate
to solve the case. After further investigation Cross discovers that the two body parts belong to different
persons: Judge Gates and Christina Fuentes, a young Mexican girl and maquiladora worker. Christina
Fuentes is one of the world-famous femicides of Juárez and therefore one of uncountable inexplicable
corpses. Cross suspects a serial killer behind all the cases, but learns that the Mexican police refuses to
investigate further and benefits from bribery instead. The US-American and the Mexican cooperation on
the Juárez femicides collapses because of the different development of the police departments, the
corruption of the Mexican police and the increasing number of victims.
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)
- Introduction
- Department Differentiation
- Corruption of the Mexican Police
- Increasing Number of Victims
- Conclusion
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)
This text examines the representation of femicide in fictional works and compares it to real-world situations. The focus is on the differences between the US and Mexican police departments in their handling of these crimes, particularly in the context of Ciudad Juarez.
- Differences in police practices and effectiveness between the US and Mexico
- The role of corruption and bribery in hindering investigations of femicide
- The increasing number of victims and the societal factors contributing to it
- The impact of gender-based violence on women and their societal vulnerabilities
- The potential for collaborative efforts to address femicide and its root causes
Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)
- Introduction: This chapter introduces the two fictive works, "If I Die in Juárez" and "The Bridge-America," and highlights the contrasting depictions of police work in the US and Mexico. The text emphasizes the real-life situation of femicides in Juárez and the experiences of victims.
- Department Differentiation: This chapter delves into the disparities between the US and Mexican police departments, focusing on the portrayal of detectives Sonya Cross and Marco Ruiz in "The Bridge-America." It also discusses the greater awareness of domestic violence and the existence of specialized departments in the US, contrasting it with the situation in Mexico.
- Corruption of the Mexican Police: This chapter explores the pervasive corruption within the Mexican police force as depicted in both the fictional works and the real-world context. It analyzes the impact of bribery, intimidation, and a lack of seriousness in addressing femicide cases.
- Increasing Number of Victims: This chapter highlights the escalating number of femicides, particularly in Ciudad Juarez, and explores the contributing factors, including the objectification of women in maquiladoras, the failure of police investigations, and the societal vulnerabilities faced by women.
Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)
The key focus areas of this text include femicide, police corruption, gender-based violence, border cities, societal vulnerabilities, maquiladoras, and collaborative efforts to address crime.
- Quote paper
- Rashida Thielhorn (Author), 2017, Stella Pope Duarte: "If I die in Juarez". The collapsed cooperation of two national Police Departments, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/457691
