Relationship between the United States and Mexico. The Desert Blood by Alicia Gaspar de Alba - Essay Example

?Analyzing the Relationship between the United s and Mexico The border between the United s and Mexico not only demarcates two countries, but also differentiates between two cultures, two societies, one overdeveloped, and the other typically developing. In Alicia Gaspar de Alba’s novel, The Desert Blood, the protagonist, Ivon Villa is of Mexican descent, but was born and raised in the United States, who becomes a University professor. She is a lesbian and lives with her American lover, Brigit, a white woman. When the couple decides to have children, Ivon contacts her cousin Ximena, a social worker (Alba 18-20). Ximena finds women who cannot afford to raise children and acts as a middleman between them and foster parents. In the United States there are many legal formalities required for a gay couple to adopt a child, but Brigit and Ivon find adoption in Mexico easier. Ximena finds a pregnant woman named Cecilia who is willing to give up the custody of her child after birth and thus it gives Ivon an opportunity to adopt a baby (Alba 2005). The difference between the two cultures becomes more evident to Ivon when she returns to her homeland to adopt a baby. In Mexico, the majority of people are very religious and shun gay people, despite the existence of gay Mexicans. Because of their religion and unbringing, many Mexicans are disturbed with the concept of homosexuals, and many resent the idea of giving up their children to homosexuals. Ivon is warned not to disclose her sexuality to the people that they are seeking to adopt from, otherwise they will not let her adopt their children. She also realizes that in Mexico, one can get everything for the right price, without any legal obligations (Alba 2005). There are gay bars in El Paso that Ivon loves going to but she does not like the fact that people have to come up with pretexts to go to such bars. They usually proclaim that they are going for ‘dancing’ at the gay bar because they cannot risk society’s abhorrence towards their kind. Ivon finds this a striking difference between the United States and Mexico in that even her own mother took time to reconcile herself with the fact that Ivon is gay. Her mother is scared of the American culture and mistakenly believes that it had a lot of influence on Ivon’s sexual orientation. The misery, torture and brutality that women are subjected to, particularly those of Mexican descent, near the US-Mexico border forms the most important part of the novel’s plot. Ivon finds about the Juarez killings while aboard the plane, which are a prevalent theme in the book, and an example of the violence that is occurring along the border, when she reads an article in a magazine. At first she is shocked to hear the news but when people she knows fall prey to such acts she is emotionally distraught and desperately tries to find her own sister who went missing after spending an evening in Juarez. Ivon is slightly embarrassed to be the one of the last of Mexican descent who finds out about theses killing (Alba 2005). Ivon and her lover make a deal with a pregnant girl named Cecilia in Mexico that they will adopt her baby. When Ivon flies in to Mexico (because Cecilia is nearing her delivery) she discovers after sometime that Cecilia has been murdered and the baby killed with her too. Ivon is disappointed because it is her baby that got killed and out of rage she decides to find Cecilia’s murderers and discovers considerable corruption within border control officers as well as widespread prejudice throughout Mexican society. When Ivon sees Cecilia’s autopsy, in particular she cannot take the scene of her mutilated body being examined and faints on the spot because of the loss of the baby and an innocent poor woman. Women’s murders go uninvestigated and police and other authorities either hide such casualties or come up with false stories like the girls ran with their boyfriends. There is evidence that on many occasions, girls are kidnapped by workers of pornographic sites to make pornography. Ivon finds that the status of Mexican women is lowly and they are degraded. While women’s activist groups and Father Francis attempt to bring about justice for these women, the authorities pay little attention to the murders. One issue is that in the deaths of girls and women, especially in regards to the murders, concerned individuals are not able to inform the FBI or other authorities that they have found a body or have any evidence in the case. So he sets up an organization called Contra el Silencio to bring justice for the slain foreigners. Ivon’s cousin Ximena also does social work to protect the rights of these victimized women and is a partner of Contra el Silencio with Father Francis (Alba 2005). When Ivon’s sister Irene goes missing from a fair in Ciudad Juarez, it gives her more motivation to bring the criminals forward and stop this brutality. Mexico’s police turn a deaf ear to Ivon’s case and then she pleads her sister’s kidnapping to the border police. To Ivon’s dismay, the police on either side of the US-Mexico border are indifferent and try to conceal Irene’s kidnapping. Problem after problem surround Ivon and her family bringing her sexual orientation into question, with her family angry at her, considering that her sexual preference is the reason that they are suffering and resulted in Irene attending the fair in the first place. In the quest to find her sister, Ivon is exposed to corrupt people, politicians, border police and other lower middle class notorious people (who trade women like goods). This corruption, and lack of interest in justice emphasizes the strong differences between America and Mexico. It is likely that a similar event in the United States (murders of many young women) would be met with extreme outrage and the search for justice would be swift and thorough (Alba 2005). Ivon also comes across people who abduct girls and turn them into prostitutes against their will. While at trying to unravel the murders, Ivon sees the effects of NAFTA and globalization on the hyper capitalist border culture of Mexico. Gasper de Alba takes a real social issue and fictionalizes it in a manner that her readers can be both entertained and may also be educated about the US-Mexico border culture and the mass killings of women (predominantly Mexican) that took place. Through Ivon’s character, the author is able to highlight the difficulties (both in family and society in general) that an American woman with Mexican heritage, who is also distinct in that she is homosexual faces in terms of social acceptance and adoption of children. The way the plot is set and Ivon unravels this mysterious case of female murders, holds the interest of the readers, particularly so as in the end the crime is not eliminated or the mafia is not caught. The mystery just magnifies the actions of those factions of society that make women insecure and objects of sex in Mexico. The Juarez murders’ reality has been depicted very well in the novel. Although the sexual preferences of the main character are strongly focused throughout the novel, it does not have any intimate romance between Ivon and her lover Brigit as the story portrays the more strong and chivalrous side of the main character, Ivon. Though Brigit is a white woman and Ivon is Hispanic, they are able to make a connection in spite of belonging to different cultures. Brigit does not disapprove adopting a Mexican child or does not press on adopting a child who shares the same race as hers. There is a very strong depiction of gender empowerment in this novel. Empowerment is something that can be achieved in many ways, and increasingly occurs in modern society. This marks a strong difference between Mexican and American societies, as American society tends to encourage females to perform stronger roles, while Mexican society treats women as second class citizens. Three empowered women were prevalent in this novel, Ivon, Rubi (a journalist) and Ximena. Of the three, only Rubi lives in the repressive Mexican society, however it still plays a role in their lives, especially due to having Mexican family and friends. They do whatever they can to find out the people behind the murders and their motives, and are resilient in their efforts, despite the difficulties that they face and lack of assistance. The protagonist Ivon is a very headstrong woman, educated and reasonable. She recognizes people who mean harm instantly and does not like being directed by men. She believes her instincts and her persistence and courage free her sister Irene, from Border Patrol Officer J. “The Lone Ranger” Wilcox, who is a rapist and a murderer. There is corruption from the grass roots level till the top level, with no one to help or trust. It took one woman’s courage to free her sister from the clutches of hungry wolves, ready to eat every woman alive. However, Ivon does not fall prey to these men. She is strong and sure within herself, using her sexuality as a means to reject advances by unwanted men, such as through making it obvious that she is not interested in males, or by showing no interest in their opinions of her. An example of her strength of character comes during a scene in a bar, where the bartender Magda is faced with derogratory comments from her customers. Madga is limited in the response she can give because of her job, however Ivon does not share this limitation. When one of the American patrons attempts to misbehave with Magda, Ivon slaps him. This is a strong indication of her personality, Ivon does not let herself or women around her to be victimized by bullies of her society: she has the courage to raise voice against injustice and evil. Because of her gender, Ivon is generally considered to be a lower class in the Mexican society than males, but her courage and persistence challenges those around her (Marciniak 2008). Ximena’s character depicts an alternative method of empowerment. As a social worker, she has a woman’s ability to care and love and also a man’s ability to put plans into actions. In addition she is also well connected, knowing many people that she can talk to and ways of bypassing restrictions. An example of this is the way in which she encourages Ivon to adopt a baby in Mexico, and shows her who needs to be paid off. She is educated and street-smart. Her interpersonal skills help her with the kind of work that she does. Ximena has an understanding of the politics in her part of the world and she knows how to get things by both legal and illegal means. She guides Ivon about how much to pay Cecilia, Father Frank (because he has a cut too) and the police. She is familiar with the unwritten rules of the politics of the Mexican patriarchal society. Ximena does not let her kindness take over her rationality as after Cecilia’s death, she tries to coax Ivon to look for other adoption papers and regarding the murder case, she is discreet because she does not want to be involved to an extent that will harm her or her family. Rubi Reyna’s character is an embodiment of organization empowerment. She is a qualified journalist and wants the truth to get to her viewers or audience. She tries to document every instance of female injustice and show it to the people in order to undermine the power of the corrupt men responsible for the numerous rapes and killings. Her strength lies in her profession and at one instance Ivon uses her business card to threaten the border patrol men. She has the organizational and networking skills to swarm up the higher echelons of society in pursuit of the truth. She uses capitalism to bargain with people like in the case when she tried to use her father’s old buses as bait for letting her shoot the members of Contra de Silencio at the desert looking for dead bodies. This does not imply that she uses capitalism to her advantage: she uses it to bring forward social problems like the Juarez murders (Marciniak 2008). An additional factor is that Rubi’s husband is directly involved in the murders. This development becomes evident towards the end of the novel, nevertheless, it does not change the way in which Rubi is empowered as a woman. Gasper de Alba’s novel is a fascinating examination of a true event embedded in a fictional, but believable world. The mystery that surrounds the murders and who is responsible draws the reader’s attention into the story. In addition, the strong characterization of the main females in the story, such as the tensions that Ivon experiences between Mexican and American cultures as well as the strain that her sexuality places on the relationships with her family as well as how it is perceived in Mexico. There are numerous movies, documentaries and books on US-Mexico border ties but Alicia Gaspar’s book stands out because it accurately states the facts of the killings while they are embedded in fiction. The reader is engrossed in mystery and is also made aware of the reality of the Juarez killings that took place (Mata 2010). The female femicides discussed at length in this novel, are a very real and grave issue which was well researched by the author. Alicia Gaspar’s book enlightens the readers about real world crimes that are taking place in Mexico. But after her novel’s publications, these cases of femicides have only increased. There is no one to catch these people and protect the helpless women. Organizations like Coalition Against Violence Towards Women, which is El Paso based has reported that 500 women died after her novel and 400 went missing. There are foreign organizations like American FBI and Amnesty International that are making an effort to eliminate such barbarism from the Mexican soil but it just seems that their efforts are going in vain because there are more and more bodies turning up, battered and mutilated. This novel reflects Gaspar’s objectivity and truthfulness in stating the facts. Within fiction she accurately narrates the torture that the women are subjected to. She is strong enough to show in her novel what role North American Free Trade Agreement plays in border identity or how industrialization impacts the Mexican patriarchal society (Brenning 2009). Gasper de Alba’s novel gives an insight into the US-Mexico border culture and how it is responsible in some way for the Juarez killings as well as providing strong characterization, fascinating reading and suspense. When official figures hide the truth, it is the courageous authors like Alicia Gaspar de Alba who take an initiative and grant the readers their due right to know the truth. The manner in which the author combines truth and fiction makes for an enlightening novel. Bibliography Alba 2005, Alicia Gaspar de. Desert Blood: The Juarez Murders. Houston: Arte Publico Press, 2005. Brenning 2009, Cori. "Book Review: Alicia Gaspar De Alba's Desert Blood." 27 April 2009. yahoo voices. . Mata 2010, Irene. "Writing on the Walls: Deciphering Violence and Industrialization in Alicia Gaspar de Alba’s Desert Blood." MUSE (2010): 15-40. Read More