By  Alicia Gaspar de Alba

 

Categories: Fiction
ISBN: 1558854460
Price: $23.95
Bind: Clothbound
Published: March 31, 2005 Paperback due out in Fall, 2007
Pages: 288
An incisive mystery that delves into the violent deaths of young women plaguing the US / Mexico border

It’s the summer of 1998 and for five years over a hundred mangled and desecrated bodies have been found dumped on the Chihuahua desert outside of Juárez, México, just across the river from El Paso, Texas. The perpetrators of the ever-rising number of violent deaths target poor young women, terrifying inhabitants of both sides of the border.

El Paso native Ivon Villa has returned to her hometown to adopt the baby of Cecilia, a pregnant maquiladora worker in Juárez. When Cecilia turns up strangled and disemboweled in the desert, Ivon is thrown into the churning chaos of abuse and murder. Even as the rapes and killings of “girls from the south” continue­their tragic stories written in desert blood­a conspiracy covers up the crimes that implicate everyone from the Maquiladora Association to the Border Patrol.

When Ivon’s younger sister gets kidnapped in Juárez, Ivon knows that it’s up to her to find her sister, whatever it takes. Despite the sharp warnings she gets from family, friends, and nervous officials, Ivon’s investigation moves her deeper and deeper into the labyrinth of silence.

From acclaimed poet and prose-writer Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Desert Blood: The Juárez Murders is a gripping thriller that ponders the effects of patriarchy, gender identity, border culture, transnationalism, and globalization on an international crisis.

Alicia Gaspar de Alba is the author of various works of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, among them a collection of poems and essays, La Llorona on the Longfellow Bridge: Poetry y Otras Movidas (Arte Público Press, 2003), and a historical novel Sor Juana’s Second Dream (University of New Mexico Press, 1999). She is also the editor of Velvet Barrios: Popular Culture and Chicana/o Sexualities (Palgrave / Macmillan, 2003). An Associate Professor of Chicana/o Studies and English at the University of California-Los Angeles, Gaspar de Alba is a native of the El Paso/Juárez border. She has been researching the crimes since 1998 and organized an international conference on the murders at UCLA in 2003.

Scroll down for further information copied from author Alicia Gaspar de Alba's website or visit Desert Blood.

Praise for Desert Blood: The Juárez Murders:

Library Journal's starred review:
Ivon Villa, a women's studies professor who needs to finish her dissertation in order to keep her job, travels to her hometown of El Paso to arrange for an adoption for herself and her female lover. Just across the border, however, the pregnant Juárez factory worker who agreed to give up her baby becomes the latest victim in a long string of unsolved murders of Mexican women in the area. Ivon vows to get past the secrecy, coverups, and conspiracy surrounding the terror-inflicting murders while dealing with her mother's disapproval, her cousin's alcoholism, and a renegade priest's activism. Offering a powerful depiction of social injustice and serial murder on the U.S.-Mexican border, this is an essential purchase for both mystery and Hispanic fiction collections. A native of the Juarez/El Paso border, Gaspar de Alba (Sor Juana's Second Dream) is an associate professor of Chicano studies and English at UCLA.

Booklist's review:
In a genre populated with strong women, Gaspar de Alba's Ivon Villa stands out as unforgettable. A visiting professor at an L.A. college, Ivon is smart, beautiful, and gay. She and her partner, Brigit, decide to adopt a baby from Mexico, and Ivon travels to her native El Paso to see the child.

On the plane, she reads an article about the murdered bodies of more than 100 women found in the desert outside Juarez. The crime wave hits home when the mother of the baby she was to adopt becomes one of the victims. Then Ivon's little sister, Irene, goes missing after an evening in Juarez. With the help of her cousin and a nervous priest, Ivon desperately searches for Irene while dealing with their accusatory mother and corrupt border patrol officers. Gaspar de Alba not only crafts a suspenseful plot but tackles prejudice in many of its ugly forms: against gays, against Hispanics, against the poor. An in-your-face, no-holds-barred story full of brutality, graphic violence, and ultimately, redemption. - Jenny McLarin, Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved.

Read Through fiction, novelist shows border murders can't be ignored, an article in the El Paso Times by Rigoberto Gonzalez.

Read Novel Raises Awareness of Juárez Deaths, an article by David Steinberg in the Albuquerque Journal.

“Gripping, heart-wrenching, set against the tough, lacerating reality of border-town Ciudad Juarez…Desert Blood is a mystery unlike any other…Villa is the perfect match for the border itself. Brava!” ^^^ ­Lucha Corpi, author of The Gloria Damasco Series

“. . .a page-turner of frightening speed…Let me say something loud and clear: Desert Blood: The Juárez Murders deserves the widest readership possible. In fact, copies of the novel should be delivered to the El Paso Police Department, La Migra, and the FBI with a post-it saying: 'mandatory reading.” ^^^ ­Helena María Viramontes, author of Under the Feet of Jesus

“Gaspar de Alba brings a scholar’s mind, a fine writer’s sensitivity, and the open heart of heritage. The result is a novel that takes your breath away, page after page, and grabs your heart.” ^^^ ­James Crumley, author of The Final Country

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Desert Blood: The Juárez Murders

Desert Blood in Italian! IL DESERTO DELLE MORTI SILENZIOSE: I Femincidi di Juarez (Desert of the Silent Dead: The Feminicides of Juárez) by La Nuova Frontiera is out: Click HERE to see the front and back cover.

Send an email to Alicia.

In support of the "¡Ni Una Más!" campaign, Alicia and Arte Publico Press are donating a percentage of the royalties and proceeds generated by this book and the book tour to Amigos de las Mujeres de Juárez, a nonprofit organization in Las Cruces that serves as both an advocacy group and a clearing-house for donations to Juárez- and Chihuahua-based NGOs that are working directly with mothers of the victims. Click on their website for more information about how you can support "¡Ni Una Más!"

About Desert Blood:

New Mystery Novel Explores the Violent Deaths of Young Women Along the US/Mexico Border

It is the summer of 1998. For five years over a hundred mangled and desecrated bodies have been found dumped on the Chihuahua desert outside of Juárez, México, just across the river from El Paso, Texas. The perpetrators of the ever-rising number of violent deaths target poor young women, terrifying inhabitants of both sides of the border. El Paso native Ivon Villa has returned to her hometown to adopt the baby of Cecilia, a pregnant maquiladora worker in Juárez. When Cecilia turns up strangled and disemboweled in the desert, Ivon is thrown into the churning chaos of abuse and murder. Even as the rapes and killings of "girls from the south" continue-their tragic stories written in desert blood-a conspiracy covers up the crimes that implicate everyone from the Maquiladora Association to the Border Patrol. When Ivon's younger sister gets kidnapped in Juárez, Ivon knows that it's up to her to find her sister, whatever it takes. Despite the sharp warnings she gets from family, friends, and nervous officials, Ivon's investigation moves her deeper and deeper into the labyrinth of silence.

From acclaimed poet and prose-writer, Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Desert Blood is a gripping thriller that ponders the effects of patriarchy, gender identity, border culture, transnationalism, and globalization on an international crisis. 

photo by Carol Petersen

"Desert Blood" poster by Alma López

Who or what is killing the poor, young, brown women of Juárez?