Cultural Representations of Feminicidio at the US-Mexico Border

Since the early 1990s, the repeated murders of women from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico have become something of a global cause celebre. 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 Juarez's feminicidal wave. Finnegan discusses Alex Rigola's theatrical adaptation of Roberto Bolano'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 Juarez, including Lourdes Portillo's acclaimed Senorita 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 Juarez Murders by Alicia Gaspar de Alba, among other examples.By drawing on a range of artistic responses to the murders in Ciudad Juarez, 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.