Missing Young Women:

Thursday, March 20, 2003. 8PM $5 Missing Young Women: Free Trade and violence against women in Mexico Since 1993 more than 320 young women have been abducted, raped and murdered in the Mexican border city of Juarez. Despite the number of victims and the audacity of the killers, authorities have failed to stop the killings or jail the murderers. A culture of violence against women reigns in Juarez. Señorita Extraviada is a 70-minute film that documents the women of Juarez and their struggle for justice. The film is narrated in English with Spanish interviews that are subtitled in English. Originally, police blamed the murders on the victims themselves, accusing them of prostitution or drug abuse. As victim's families organized to defend their daughters and demand justice, the cops desperately arrested and tortured suspects until they confessed, but the murders continued. Most alarmingly, the account of one female survivor was never investigated. The film is also a disturbing portrait of Ciudad Juarez, NAFTA's "City of the Future" and home to 500 enormous assembly plants, called "maquiladoras." In these plants, Mexican workers toil away 12-hour shifts in well-kept, US-owned factories for $4-8 a day. After shift, workers return to shantytowns of sewage, danger and squalor. Families with three full time wage earners can't afford decent housing. Señorita Extraviada gives voice to the victim's families and local activists struggling against corrupt police. The film raises important questions about an economic system that devalues women's work and women's lives. "With over 270 girls raped and murdered and another 450 reported missing, we felt we had to investigate these disappearances and attacks," explains director Lourdes Portillo, "attacks specifically directed toward young, brown, unprotected, poor women. We had all these different pieces of the puzzle, all these various elements, that just didn't fit together, and the most surprising thing was the silence." This event is co-sponsored by the Mexico Solidarity Network and .... Jessica Marques, the west coast coordinator for the Mexico Solidarity Network, will introduce the film and lead a discussion and question/answer period afterward.