Gender Violence at the U.S.–Mexico Border: Media Representation and Public Response

2. We Never Thought It Would Happen to Us: Approaches to the Study of the Subjectivities of the Mothers of the Murdered Women of Ciudad Ju

Introduction to Chapter 2 Patricia Ravelo Blancas analyzes the work of civic organizations and the testimonies of the mothers of the murdered women of Ciudad Juárez to demonstrate how violence along the border engenders community activism . Examining the construction of grassroots organizations becomes crucial to the understanding of the nature of the politics of resistance in this violent context. Ravelo underscores the significance of emotions in the formation of political agendas and shows how the interpretation of emotions is related to the ethics and praxis of a gender-based politics. Although this chapter closely reflects the views of both concerned mothers and activists, Ravelo’s main concern is the political responsibility of public institutions for their often unrestrained patriarchal bias. How can a politics be effectively conducted by suffering mothers against a patriarchal state? Are emotions a distinctive element of a female-centered politics? What is the state’s reaction to this emergent activism? Through the conversations Ravelo discusses, we become aware of both the government’s and the media’s continual redefinition of their views of the victims. This process points to the core of gender politics, which consists of defining in corporal terms those social subjects who are excluded from claiming fundamental human rights. Feelings of mourning, desperation , and confusion inspire these women’s actions, but they also form the basis of the definition of both victim and perpetrator, which is central to the political conflict of the border region. The emotional basis of gender politics can help us understand and reconstruct the idea of humanism in relation to the rationality of the state and media politics. That is, by insisting on the human value of a victim, emotion-fueled activism reveals the need for humanizing laws and institutions and brings to light the violent nature of the border’s sociopolitical system. This humanist perspective catapults the struggle against violence from a regional or national concern to a global phenomenon. The connection between localized and individual feelings and an empathic 36 Introduction to Chapter 2 international politics makes emotions an effective discourse for transnational cohesion. The grassroots politics that Ravelo addresses is not free of internal or external obstacles, however. As she implies in her chapter, conflicts and differences among and within advocacy groups may arise, as was the case for several NGOs over the past decade. In the end Ravelo maintains that these obstacles should not impede the configuration of a collective agenda, ultimately based on a universal discourse of human rights, which may crystallize in umbrella-like civic organizations or comprehensive citizen networks against violence. This chapter is based primarily on interviews conducted in Ciudad Juárez, from the end of 2003 to the beginning of 2004, that were compiled for a project called Social Protest and Collective Action Regarding Sexual and Gender Violence in Ciudad Juárez. Specifically, it examines the construction of subjectivities as structures of meaning. The interviewees —six mothers, one aunt, and representatives from two NGOs—have all lost a loved one to gender violence. The discussion centers on how these women are constituted as historical subjects, understanding their subjectivities as a manifestation of conflicting emotions: on the one hand, suffering, fear, insecurity, anger, and discouragement, and on the other hand, strength, dignity, courage, and endurance. The analysis focuses on the subjects’ social interactions to better understand the configuration of their respective subjectivities, intersubjectivities, and sense of morality. This focus on gender and subjectivity helps us understand the recent emergence of grassroots political organizations, whose common goal is to fight against the femicides along Mexico’s northern border. Subjectivity and Maternal Emotions The escalating violence and recurring disappearances of women along Mexico’s northern border have provoked a wide range of complex emotions from those women who have lost a daughter, sister, niece, or friend. Anguish, fear, insecurity, and apprehension, among other feelings, intensify chapter 2 We Never Thought It Would Happen to Us Approaches to the Study of the Subjectivities of the Mothers of the Murdered Women of Ciudad Juárez patricia ravelo blancas 38 Patricia Ravelo Blancas their sense of personal vulnerability and transform their sense of belonging to a collectivity. As a result of the structural inequality currently in the region, many border residents have been forced to live in poverty and have suffered discrimination and abuses of their human rights. The violence these subjects experience in their daily life has paradoxically changed their worldview by...