In clear, succinct prose as observant as a desert eagle, as detached as the desert sky, Daughters leads us to a conclusion as searing as that unforgiving desert sun. Complicity: persons in power involved and complicit in covering up. That is what went wrong. That is what allows this to continue and the grisly finds to increase. At first, this book seems a history. It begins with a history of the state and city itself. The state of Chihuahua, Mexico. The city of Juarez, a border town directly opposite El Paso, Texas cartographically. Juarez is the opposite of El Paso in many other ways also. On one side of the border, respect for human life. Material comfort. Potential to make dreams come true. On the other side of the border, human life disposable. Material lack. And waking nightmares as yet without escape.
Rodriguez, an award-winning journalist, has researched the book’s subject exhaustively. Her patience must be limitless. There was no central clearing house for much of this information. She does an admirable job of piecing together well-documented facts which might seem at first incidental. But piece by piece a shocking puzzle falls into place. Her prose takes us through a history of the geographical area and a history of the crimes. It outlines every stage of the ‘investigation’ from scapegoat suspects to public outcry to task forces sent from other nations.
Daughters introduces family members and loved ones of the victims. It gives a cultural context in which this systematic slaughter persists. We hear horror stories of women who may have been victims of the same criminals but lived to tell their harrowing story. Would it surprise you that in more than one instance the rapist, abductor or thug worked in the local police station? Or was a city-paid bus driver? That families were treated with disgust and disregard by officials, even as they reported a loved one missing? That local media blamed the victims? That NAFTA-bankrolled corporations refused to help in even minor ways such as building closer housing or lighting the outlying streets? Or that at the top levels people seemed to be afraid to rock the boat and lose the NAFTA cash cow?
But those were my reactions. Ms. Rodriguez does not point fingers; instead this book takes the reader on their own journey. One by one the indicting facts stack upon themselves until the reader sees the case fall into clear focus, incident after incident in which police were tangentially or directly involved in a felony: a murdered lawyer who tried to help the victims; protesters for justice harassed or fired; obvious procurement of victims in a systematic way; bodies misidentified; evidence obscured or lost; mistakes covered up; families mocked; a witness and hero gunned down in broad daylight, his killers set free.
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