Transfrontera Crimes: Representations of the Juárez Femicides in Recent Fictional and Non-Fictional Accounts

In her article, Marrietta Messmer discusses the representation of the Juárez femicides and their traumatizing effects on the Juárez/El Paso community in four recently published accounts: Teresa Rodriguez's journalistic account The Daughters of Juarez (2007), the documentary Se orita Extraviada (2001) directed by Lourdes Portillo, the feature film Bordertown (2006), directed by Gregory Nava, and Alicia Gaspar de Alba's mystery novel Desert Blood: The Juárez Murders (2005). More specifically, she analyzes the degree to which these sources regard the femicides not merely as a Mexican problem but as a structural and highly significant transborder issue that has its roots in the region's current political and economic developments, as well as its pervasive social and cultural changes.