Staging Femicide/Confronting Reality: Negotiating Gender and Representation in Las Mujeres de Juárez — Page 9:
41 After a matinee performance of Las Mujeres de Juárez, I encountered the President of Phoenix College who had been in the audience that afternoon. When she asked me what else she could do to help in this situation, I assured her that, first and foremost, her willingness to invite a Latino production company to produce this play in the theatre on her campus and offer it to the community was a significant gesture and an unprecedented act of good will in Phoenix, Arizona. Opening a forum in which these issues could be presented to a broader population was the first step in promoting awareness and inspiring action. I was comforted by the fact that audience members like her left the theatre that day with the question echoing in their minds and hearts, "Is that too much to ask?"
Hope for the Future?
42 A little over a year ago in an announcement in the "Good News" section of the Amnesty International Australia website reads:
Mexico/USA: Legislation condemns murders of women
5 May 2006
Amnesty International welcomes the congressional passage of legislation calling on the United States and Mexico to work together to find an end to the violence against women in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, where more than 400 women and girls have been murdered since 1993.
The United States Congress rarely passes free-standing resolutions expressing concern about human rights conditions in a friendly country such as Mexico. The situation in Juarez and Chihuahua is so bad, however, that the US Congress could no longer ignore it. Congress has now unanimously called on the Secretary of State and the US Ambassador to Mexico to take specific steps to ensure that addressing these horrendous murders becomes a part of the US - Mexico bilateral agenda.
This is an extraordinary and historic event. By pressing Mexican authorities to make every effort to stop the killings, the secretary of state and ambassador to Mexico can help to ensure justice in Chihuahua. (Amnesty Australia)
As I returned to the dramaturgical research I conducted over two years ago in preparation to direct Amavizca's play, a curious thing happened. I was rereading many of the articles I had accessed previously and noticed a date highlighted in several documents from the Internet searches I had completed. Both the Amnesty International and Witness websites make mention, as I have done earlier in this article, of Neyra Azucena Cervantes's disappearance on May 13, 2003. Today is May 13, 2007; are we any closer to justice? I met Neyra's mother, Patricia Cervantes at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico, during the J. Paul Taylor Social Justice Symposium: Justice for Women in March 2006. She was selling bags and other crafts to raise money. After talking to her for a while I bought a pink burlap bag that has the words "solo por ser mujer" (just for being a woman) sewn into the fabric with a simple black yarn. She explained to me that she was still trying to save up enough money for a headstone for her daughter's grave. These women, like all women of the world, deserve dignity and justice.