Customer Reviews

Desert Blood: The Juarez Murders

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A HUGE fan of Gaspar de Alba's earlier historical fiction, and an ardent admirer of her writing style, I was excited to find that she'd penned a new novel! -- yet, even so, for some inexplicably incomprehensible reason (I wasn't in the mood for gory violence? Mysteries are not my genre of choice?), I picked this book up several times - only to put it back down, before -- finally giving in to a closer look -- and, that was all it took!! Once I got through the first few pages, I couldn't put it down! It's true that the sometimes graphic images crafted by the carefully chosen words of Gaspar de Alba's skilled writing are often hard to stomache (that's how good she is!) -- but then - so, too, must be the very real murders and mutilations that her book fictionalizes. I commend Gaspar de Alba for her effort/s at spreading the word/s .... and .... give her "mil gracias" for the very affable creation of her "tough yet tender," "gender-bending," mapi-to-be, Yvonne-turned-Ivon. ; )

I initially was going to give this book three stars, but in all fairness, I was hooked and couldn't put it down.

The only problem I had with this book was the way it was written. I believe the author had a message to say, theories to give, and details to offer. She then constructed a story AROUND her facts, hoping they'd fit perfectly. The story is too coincidental and unlikely in some areas. The constant Spanish dialogue was sometimes translated in same sentence, which bugged me some. She would of been better off using footnotes, in my opinion.

The writing was a bit too simple for me, but I can understand that maybe she wanted to reacher a wider audience.

The theories fascinated me though. That was what kept me turning the pages. I usually read a book in a few days, but I stayed up very late to finish this one. And I also felt satisfied when I got to the ending. Not the actual story's ending, but the way the author summed everything up in theory.

This fictional book was a vehicle to spread a horrible reality, and I am grateful. ---- Carolyn, 35, Native El Pasoan.

You won't be able to put this one down, and once you're done reading it, you'll want to help the women of Juarez. A great read, but an even greater source of vital information. Too many people are still unaware of the massive murdering of innocent young women along the U.S.-Mexico border, and Desert Blood sheds light on this horrible situation. I encourage you to read it and to take action informing others of the femicides in Juarez as well!

This book made the hair on my neck stand straight up! But I couldn't stop reading. The fact that it is fiction centered around real events made it even more horrifying and compelling. But even if the Juarez murders had not and were not taking place, this is still an incredible book. It's well written, the story riveting, and the characters (very important to me) are drawn with great reality. The protagonist, Ivon Villa, is a strong but flawed gay woman, fiercely loyal to her family in spite of her mother's hatefulness, and her iron will and determination make her a perfect vehicle for the non-fictional message of this book. BRAVO ALICIA!

It did not take more than a few chapters to fiqure this book out. She is not a complicated writer, filling in pages of meaningless material. Who cares if Ivon is a lesbian, it did not have anything to do with the murders. In fact it did not make her character any more interesting. Ivons mother did not seem to belong at all , only being some crazy women who beat her children. I can see a follow up book soon, because the killers were not found, only a porn studio. They were to many characters who just filled pages and nothing else. There were a couple of graphic pages, but nothing building up to a great ending. Also where did the bus come from at the end? So much of this book was going nowhere. I believe there was very little research put into this book. It could all have been taken from papers and label it fiction. This could have been interesting if some of the characters were studied differently, maybe a case stuy in some of the murdered women. It just seemed to go in many directions and not just the killings. J.w. could have been better analized , where did he go. the book just did not bring the Juarez killings to a better understanding.

The sad fact is that the stories that should receive the most coverage in the news often go practically ignored. Since 1993 an atrocity has been going on at the US-Mexican border that has left hundreds of women raped, mutilated and dead while very little has been done to solve the crimes and stop whoever is behind them. This is the setting that Gaspar De Alba has chosen for her Lambda Award winning novel as she tells the story of Ivon Villa, who is drawn into the situation when her sistr disappears in Mexico.

Desert Blood builds at a pace that leaves the reader feeling the growing terror Ivon experiences as she faces the idea that she may find her sister too late. There is so much to this plot that it almost becomes one of the book's weaknesses. There are three stories that run at once - the disappearances of Irene and the other women, Ivon's quest to adopt a child and her relationship with her family over her lesbianism. The stories of the women would have been enough to make a complete book and the other two strains sometimes distract from that. That could actually be a plus though because the one story is so horrific that the reader needs some release time away from it. One irritating aspect of the book is that De Alba includes a lot of comments in Spanish. Given the setting of the book, it's appropriate, but there are no translations for those readers who do not speak the language and the impression is left that parts of the story are being missed or not understood. A glossary of some time would have been helpful.

The compelling nature of this story makes it a book that should be read. Anyone looking for a romance with steamy sex scenes won't find that here, but they will find an issue that will move them to anger and an extremely well written novel.

Now this one was full of so many turns and kept pulling you in deeper, good read.

In doing research on the femicides down in Juarez, I checked out Desert Blood: The Juarez Murders. I was especially interested in a writer from the El Paso area, being able to give me a better feel for what was going on down there. Contrary to the title, much of the book has to do with the main character (author), rather than the actual murders. To say that the protagonist "has issues" is an understatement. Ivon feels so persecuted throughout the story that she does not come off as a particularly sympathetic character, though perhaps this is to point out that being lesbian in Hispanic culture is especially difficult. It would have been more effective, if the plot had stayed true to the title and focused more on the murders. But make no mistake; although this is fiction, it is a book that has a definite agenda in regard to the situation in Juarez.

In an exerpt from a sequel to "Desert Blood" which Gaspar de Alba has posted on her own website, Ivon sums up the author's "insight" into the Juarez Murders:

"It's about poor, young, Mexican women who are being slaughtered on the border precisely because they are poor, young, and Mexican, and because their bodies pose a threat to the racial economy of white supremacy and, thus, to the national security of the United States."

Or as Ivon articulates at the end of "Desert Blood": "What happens if they cross over? More illegal Mexican women in El Paso means more legal brown babies. What's the price of free trade?"

Connecting all the dots, NAFTA is blamed for creating jobs on the border for these poor brown women to come and work in, and also as a preemptive anti-immigration measure, murder is used to prevent them from crossing the border to the U.S. illegally. The problem is that these women already have jobs, and NAFTA was promoted in the U.S. as an anti-immigration tool since it would provide more work in Mexico and an incentive to stay there. As Gaspar de Alba herself says in apparent contradiction: "A majority of the victims are poor migrant women from small villages and cities in the interior of Mexico, coming to Juárez not to cross the border but to find a job at a maquiladora." This is extremely tortured logic and isn't it surprising with so many women in the half million maquiladora labor force, that many thousands more are not being killed according to this theory?

To understand the Murders in Juarez, you do have to realize how easily these young women become victims as they move north to Juarez with inadequate housing and improper security to protect them as they go to and from work in the early morning or late at night. For these unsafe conditions along with the social and economic exploitation, NAFTA can be held responsible, but not for some kind of racial geo-politcal masterplan as implied by the author's thesis. As a matter of fact, one of the theories investigators have for the murders is that they are commited by "unemployed local men, resentful of the women working in the maquiladoras." The fact that the victims are poor and also women, has led to the killings being ignored for so long.

Unfortunately, "Desert Blood: The Juarez Murders" does not "shed new light on the murders." In fact, it creates a red herring for the unsuspecting reader. Why inject a racial motive when there is no evidence that this violence against women stems from anywhere but the local culture? Such misleading "information" even in a work of "fiction," becomes another form of injustice. It would have been more instructive to examine the changing role of women in Mexican society in the wake of NAFTA and how this may have resulted in gender conflict. What about the role of drug cartels and local gangs, serial killers, and the extent to which the official investigation has actually been compromised? For a more objective account of the true horror of the situation down at the border read "The Daughters of Juarez" by Teresa Rodriguez.

This book read like a cheezy, mystery version of Rubyfruit Jungle--set on the border, Chicana style. It is overflowing with stereotype and is in need of serious editing. Despite its length, I read it in 2 days (for me not always a good sign) and was slightly shocked at how disappointed I felt because I have been a fan of Gaspar de Alba's thoughtful, theoretical work. I wonder what, if anything, this perfectly-resolved tale will do to shed light on the murdered women of Juarez, other than to detail the horror of the killings, which her readers are likely to already know.