-= NMSU PANORAMA - Summer 2006 =- Justice for Women

Features

Justice for Women

By Mary Benanti '84

J. Paul Taylor symposium on social justice serves as a call to action

Paula Bonilla Flores holds back tears after being presented with a memorial dress decorated in honor of her daughter Sagrario. Photo by Darren Phillips

“When they hand you your child … in a plastic bag, the officials think it’s over. For the families, the struggle is just beginning.”

Those heart-wrenching words from Paula Bonilla Flores, whose daughter is among the 400 and more women slain in Juarez over the past 13 years, helped open three days of gripping stories and emotion as the second J. Paul Taylor Symposium on Social Justice unfolded at New Mexico State University March 29-31. This year’s focus was Justice for Women, but as the panels featuring more than 50 experts met it became evident that the symposium was a voice calling for awareness that violence in any form is crippling to humanity – that injustice to one human life is injustice to all.

“If this collective gathering leads to change for the benefit of all, then our objective will be fulfilled,” said Waded Cruzado-Salas, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “Seeds planted this week may take years to grow; however, let us pray that the roots run deep to bring about a great transformation.”

Cruzado-Salas along with Cynthia Bejarano, an NMSU assistant professor of criminal justice, organized the symposium with the help of a 30-member committee from across the NMSU campus.

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The Crosses

More than 400 crosses commemorating slain girls and women were installed on the NMSU campus in preparation for the J. Paul Taylor Symposium on Social Justice. Photo by Darren Phillips

The most visible event of the symposium was the display of 400 pink crosses installed at the corner of Espina Street and University Avenue the day before the symposium began. Students from NMSU’s Aqui se puede! program helped Arizona artist Irene Simmons and Bejarano pound them into the earth. Later, dresses decorated in memory of the more than 400 women slain in Juarez and Chihuahua were hung on the crosses. Some were dresses for little girls; some were plain work clothes. Someone donated and decorated a wedding gown; another brought a prom dress. The dresses represented the full range of victims who have been killed or disappeared from the borderlands since 1993, Simmons said.

Five dresses were selected to present to the families of the deceased who participated in the opening panel. Later, other families would come and look for dresses with their daughters’ names as well.

Simmons found herself overcome with emotion as the relatives searched among the crosses, often not finding one with their child’s name.

“I told them if they didn’t find one, I would make it for them personally,” Simmons said. She also found herself consoling some of the NMSU students who visited the display and were emotionally taken aback by the tragedy it represented.

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The Opening Session and Vigil

Patti Cervantes, wearing a photo poster of her missing daughter Neyra Cervantes who disappeared on her way to work, participates in the symposium’s opening night vigil. Photo by Darren Phillips

Bonilla Flores was joined by Francisco Torres, Patti Cervantes, Malu Andrade and Eve Arce on stage at Hardman Hall at the opening panel session. More than 260 people crowded into the hall to listen to their stories. Because they spoke only Spanish, translation was provided through electronic ear pieces.

A respectful silence filled the hall as the relatives spoke of their slain loved ones, of the lack of concern on the part of law enforcement officials in Juarez and Chihuahua, of their unending search for answers and justice, and of threats of violence and death made against them if they continued that search.

Andrade, whose sister Alejandra Garcia Andrade is among those killed, told the audience at several panels at which she spoke that she continued to receive anonymous phone calls even as she attended the NMSU conference. She was told she would suffer worse than her sister had if she didn’t shut up. A number of members of the audience were visibly moved by her call to continue the effort if something did happen to her.

Once their discussion concluded, those attending the session joined them in a solemn procession to the site of the crosses. Carrying candles, more than 500 people walked somberly along the university’s International Mall and past the Music Recital Hall as the names of the women who have disappeared or who have been slain were read. Traveling with them was J. Paul Taylor himself, who would later call for a continuance of awareness campaigns and action.

Riis Gonzalez, development officer for the College of Arts and Sciences, said he had never seen such an immense tragedy and outpouring of feeling.

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Human Rights

The second day of the symposium focused on the lack of human rights and the accepted use of torture to elicit false confessions from innocent people accused of the crimes in Mexico. Cynthia Kiecker is a U.S. citizen, who along with her Mexican husband, Ulises Perzabal, was tortured during an 18-month imprisonment in Chihuahua for the murder of Marcela Viviana Rayas, a 16-year-old girl neither of them knew. The couple contended they attracted attention of officials because they were artists who looked different from the rest of the population, particularly Perzabal, who is a musician and songwriter.

Cynthia Kiecker, a U.S. citizen, and her husband, Ulises Perzabal, were arrested in Chihuahua City and tortured into signing false confessions for the slaying of Marcelea Viviana Rayas. They were finally released – and exonerated – after 18 months in prison. Photo by Darren Phillips

Their hippie-like appearance made them easy scapegoats for the murder. Perzabal said the Chihuahua police burst into their home and put a gun to his head and a plastic bag over Kiecker’s face. They were dragged off to jail and tortured in adjoining rooms, each able to hear the other screaming. At one point Kiecker was threatened with rape and sodomy with a stick. Tied to metal bed springs, Perzabal was doused with water and burned with electric shocks on his genitals. After days of this torture, they signed confessions.

Another panelist, Oscar Maynez, a former forensic investigator who worked some of the cases, said that such torture has been a stock tool of some Mexican law enforcement officials. For them, the use of torture to extract confessions has made it “unnecessary” to employ technology or to respond to the offer of help from U.S. investigators.

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Journalists

On the final day of the symposium, four working journalists – two from Mexico, two from the U.S. – joined the discussion sharing their views on how the story of the killings has been handled by the media. They also shared the difficulties they have faced in covering the slayings.

Alfredo Quijano, subdirector for the daily newspaper Norte in Juarez, talked about the dangers of covering the story and about having a reporter kidnapped off the streets. He told the audience that the killings have increased along with organized crime and drug trafficking in the region and that the media often is given misleading information by authorities.

Alfredo Corchado, a reporter for The Dallas Morning News, also linked the murders to the drug cartels and an organized crime group called “The Gatekeepers.” Cecilia Balli, a writer for Texas Monthly, has been spending time in Juarez trying to understand the issue of femicides and looking beyond statistics. Ignacio Alvarado, a freelance writer, said corruption among officials – and even collusion among some of the media – have a hand in the slayings. Alvarado noted reporters have to be careful whom they talk to and share information with because no one can be sure who is connected to whom anymore.

NMSU journalism students who attended the session were stunned by some of their comments. Senior Natisha Hales said while journalists always try to be objective, she was impressed that there were some who cared so much that they risked their lives to cover the story.

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NMSU Parents

Debra Zubia, crime victim advocate, Linda Garcia, mother of Angela Autumn Castilleja, and Carlos Martinez, father of Carly Martinez, spoke during the symposium’s final hour. Castilleja was a pre-nursing student at the Doña Ana Community College and Martinez a student at NMSU’s main campus. Both women were slain. Photo by J. Victor Espinoza

New Mexico State is not immune to the tragedies – and in fact in some ways shares the pain with other families along the border. Two young women who were students a the main campus and one from the Doña Ana campus have been slain and their bodies too were found in the desert. But their parents helped give participants, many of whom were emotionally exhausted by the depth of the symposium, some closure with their insights about violence against women.

Carlos Martinez and Linda Garcia, the father of Carly Martinez and the mother of Angela Autumn Castilleja, attended in person. The mother of Katie Sepich sent a statement. Martinez spoke eloquently about his daughter, his loss and the things he has had to discover in himself since her murder.

“Three things are important. Faith, hope and love,” he said. “Love to overcome hate; hope overcomes despair; faith overcomes the face of evil.”

Asked about forgiveness Martinez said, “I haven’t gotten there yet.”

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A Call To Action

Francisco Torres, center, takes part in the candlelight march from Hardman Hall to the field of crosses as part of his struggle to gain justice for his slain daughter, Minerva, who disappeared from Chihuahua City in 2001. Her body was found in 2003, but the family was not notified for two more years, Torres says. Photo by Darren Phillips

Visibly moved by the three-day event, former state representative J. Paul Taylor spoke as the symposium came to a close. He remarked that emotions and tears flowed easily throughout the three days. But he also said he felt that the sentiments aroused by the symposium shouldn’t end there and then in the Music Center Recital Hall. The crosses must be carried to El Paso and then across the border into Mexico where they must be planted as well.

The symposium brought together the most knowledgeable collection of experts involved with the issue in recent years. A photo exhibit, documentaries and readings also were part of the gathering. Filmmakers and university students from across the country attended, listened, conducted interviews, planned documentaries and began research. International press from Mexico, Germany and Israel attended. National U.S. press as well as state and local media outlets covered the meeting.

“This is what a university must be about,” said President Michael V. Martin during the closing hours of the conference. “Presenting issues and ideas and bringing together experts who can help solve the problems faced by our communities.”

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