Women of Juarez

DONATIONS
Casa Amiga Centro de Crisis: Peru Norte 878, Colonia Hidalgo, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. Contact: Esther Chavez Cano, 011-52-656-615-3850, or [email protected]. Information: www.casa-amiga.org

Donations: Bank of America account No. 004768701174, Routing No. 111000025. Send checks to Casa Amiga, Avenida Commerce 6928, El Paso, TX 79915

Write to the Arce-Atayde orphans in care of Eva Arce, Grullas 1405, Colonia Granjas de Chapultepec, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico 32677.

Write to Irma Monreal at Grulla 2205, Colonia Granjas de Chapultepec, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico 32677.

Write to Benita Salgado Monarrez at Tortillería La Esperanza, Calle Porfirio Diaz 342, Colonia Morelos-Zaragoza, Codigo Postal 32590, Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico.

The Instituto Chihuahuense de la Mujer (Chihuahua Institute for Women) runs a support group for mothers whose daughters were victims of homicide. The women provide support for their grandchildren. Donations: Send to Instituto Chihuahuense de la Mujer, 16 de Septiembre #1220, Colonia Partido Romero, Ciudad Juarez, Chih. CP 32030, Mexico.

Amigos de las Mujeres de Juárez (Friends of the Women of Juárez) is an advocacy group based in Las Cruces, N.M. Web site: www.amigosdemujeres.org. The group works to end crimes against women and support victims’ families in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua city. Information: [email protected].

The nonprofit group works with Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa (May Our Daughters Return Home) and Justicia Para Nuestras Hijas (Justice for Our Daughters). Donations to these two groups can be made through Amigos. Make checks or money orders payable to Amigos de las Mujeres de Juárez, P.O. Box 2449, Mesilla Park, NM 88047. Provide the name of the group that should receive the funds.

For information about the Amigos pin featured in the design of the Orange County Register’s Juárez project go to: www.amigosdemujeres.org/sale.htm

WEB SITES
Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa (May Our Daughters Return Home) is a coalition of families and friends of women who have disappeared, founded in 2001 by Juárez teacher Marisela Ortiz and mother Norma Andrade. Web site: www.mujeresdejuarezjuarez.org. E-mail: [email protected]. Phone: 011-52-656-620-4599, 011-52-656-687-8026 or 011-52-656-624-4457.

Voces Sin Eco (Voices Without Echo) works to create a greater awareness of the killings. Founded by the sister of victim Maria Sagrario Gonzalez. Web site: www.angelfire.com/in2/qualm/voces.html

Justicia Para Nuestras Hijas (Justice for Our Daughters) is a support group created in 2002 by city of Chihuahua mothers, their legal advocates and supporters. Web site: espanol.geocities.com/justhijas

Amnesty International USA’s work on Ciudad Juárez can be found at www.amnestyusa.org. Amnesty has recruited actors such as Salma Hayek, Mira Sorvino and Esai Morales to promote awareness. The group recently unveiled a mural honoring the missing women of Juárez and Chihuahua city. To raise funds for its work on Juárez, Amnesty sells a handmade, limited-edition silk solidarity scarf designed by artist Ame Pitt. To order the scarves, $100 each, call Bonnie Abaunza or Mario Tafur, (310) 815-0450.

The Juárez Women/Mujeres De Juárez Project is a Web site offering information about the killings, including a time line, media events and articles. Collaborators include El Paso Times reporter Diana Washington Valdez, author of the upcoming “Harvest of Women,” and Sergio Gonzalez Rodriguez, author of “Huesos en el Desierto (Bones in the Desert).” Both books are about the killings. Web site: juarezwomen.com/Background.html

V-Day: The nonprofit group dedicated to ending violence against women organized an event to support the victims’ families in Ciudad Juárez. See www.vday.org/contents/vday/aboutvday. To order a V-day T-shirt dedicated to the women of Ciudad Juárez: 69.20.48.140.

Information on virtual sit-ins, U.S. vigils, marches, performance protests and street protests tied to the killings can be found at www.thing.net/~cocofusco/dignaeng2.html

A bibliography compiled by Mike Amezcua for the UCLA conference “Maquiladora Murders” can be found at chavez.ucla.edu. The Web site includes a list of books; journal, magazine and newspaper articles; films and videos; and online articles and research papers about the disappearances.

To learn more about the maquiladora connection to the killings, go to the Maquila Solidarity Network Web site: www.maquilasolidarity.org/aboutus.htm

The Latin American Network Information Center at the University of Texas at Austin offers articles and history of the women who were killed at lanic.utexas.edu/la/mexico/humanrights

The Frida Kahlo Theater plans to relaunch in August its play on the Ciudad Juárez disappearances and killings. Information: (213) 382-8133 or www.fridakahlotheater.org/

LOCAL CONTACTS
To learn more about protests, marches or caravans from Orange County and the Southern California area, contact Carolina Sarmiento at the Centro Cultural de Mexico at (714) 953-9305 or go to www.el-centro.org.

Justice for the Women of Juárez in Los Angeles is a volunteer-based organization that assists Juarez families and raises funds for their projects, including DNA testing.Contact: Lorena Mendez, (818) 842-3895 or [email protected]. More information: www.justiceforthewomenofjuarez.org.

ViejasKandalosas is a binational collective of artists dedicated to the denouncement of injustice and violence through art and action. Contact: Azul Luna, (323) 664-8455 or [email protected].

To learn more about upcoming Juárez-related events, contact Claire Droney from Code Pink Women for Peace in Venice at (310) 827-3046. Code Pink is a grass-roots peace and social-justice movement initiated by women. The group joined Amnesty International and V-Day to organize an international demonstration Feb. 14 for the women of Juárez. Information: www.codepinkalert.org.

U.S. CONTACTS
The Coalition on Violence Against Women and Families on the Border, based in El Paso, Texas, is a binational coalition of students, university faculty members, labor activists and community residents working to create systemic policy changes along the U.S.-Mexico border. It promotes the development of a human-rights agreement between the countries. Contact: Irasema Coronado or Victor Muñoz at [email protected]

SEE THE DOCUMENTARY
For more information about Lourdes Portillo’s documentary “Señorita Extraviada,” about the disappearances in Ciudad Juárez go to www.pbs.orgor lourdesportillo.com. To set up a screening of “Señorita Extraviada” in your city, see www.mexicosolidarity.org/senorita_info.html.

TAKE ACTION
To write Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, Mexico’s attorney general or Chihuahua’s governor, go to takeaction.amnestyusa.org.

To write Mexican President Vicente Fox via Amnesty International, go to takeaction.amnestyusa.org.

California Rep. Hilda Solis, D-El Monte, introduced a congressional resolution calling on the U.S. government to support those seeking justice in Ciudad Juárez. To send a letter to your representative, go to takeaction.amnestyusa.org.

To support human-rights activists such as Evangelina Arce in Ciudad Juárez, see takeaction.amnestyusa.org.