ABSTRACT
Since 1993, when the murders of young girls on the streets of Ciudad Juárez first began to capture headlines in both Mexico and further afield, a set of dynamic cultural responses has been generated. 1 Literature, feature films, songs, art, documentaries, theatrical works, photography, and digital materials from around the world have sought to encapsulate the horrors of the crimes and to question the systems of power that sustain and nurture their continuance. 2 Such is the extent of the cultural explorations of the murders that it has been argued that the “‘fictional’ narratives have become both the site where victims are mourned and the means by which justice can be restored” (Volk and Schlotterbeck 2010, 122). Such assertions, while highly questionable, do register the central role played by the Juárez cultural narratives in the way that they serve as vehicles for transnational communication about the murders, inviting patterns of identification and inciting outrage and activism.
