Jarquin Headlines Violence Against Mexican Women

By Amy Littlefield

OAXACA, Mexico--On the morning of Mother's Day, journalist Soledad Jarquin Edgar, 45, was sitting at her dining room table writing an article about mothers. It was not the typical Oaxacan Mother's Day tribute to the virtues of motherhood.

Instead it was about the "enormous gap between the ideal and the reality" for mothers. In January and February, she noted, the press reported 81 cases of domestic violence in Oaxaca.

International attention is currently riveted on drug-related violence in Mexico, which the Christian Science Monitor on June 2 reported had killed more than 4,000 since Dec. 1, 2006, and was spurring the Bush administration to push for more than $1 billion in aid.

But for Jarquin Edgar in the south of the country, domestic violence--not narcotics--is the main story.

Oaxaca is Mexico's second poorest state, with the second highest rate of domestic violence and homicide against women. There have been 487 documented cases of women murdered in Oaxaca between 1999 and 2007, an average of five per month.

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Two Radio Reporters Murdered in Oaxaca

Two womer from a community radio were ambushed in Putla de Guerrero, Oaxaca, and shot to death.

By Sofia Jarrin

On April 7, two radio reporters from a community radio were ambushed in Putla de Guerrero, Oaxaca, and shot to death. Teresa Bautista Flores, 24, and Felicitas Martínez, 20, two women journalists working for La Voz que Rompe el Silencio (The Voice that Breaks the Silence), were murdered allegedly by paramilitary forces. Three other people were wounded in the shooting: Jaciel Vázquez, aged 3, and his parents.

On April 7, two radio reporters from a community radio were ambushed in Putla de Guerrero, Oaxaca, and shot to death. Teresa Bautista Flores, 24, and Felicitas Martínez, 20, two women journalists working for La Voz que Rompe el Silencio (The Voice that Breaks the Silence), were murdered allegedly by paramilitary forces. Three other people were wounded in the shooting: Jaciel Vázquez, aged 3, and his parents.

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In Oaxaca, Women Rise

by John Gibler

Putting their personal lives on hold, women in the Mexican state of Oaxaca helped shut down the government, took over a TV station, and stood up to police violence.

“Everything is the movement,” says Patricia Jimenez Alvarado, looking at me across her kitchen table. “You don't have a personal life anymore.” She leans her face into her open palms, and weeps.

Jimenez, in her mid-forties, is a thesis advisor at Oaxaca State University by profession. But the government of Oaxaca accuses her of being an “urban guerrilla.” Her house and car have just been broken into and searched. She regularly receives text-message death threats on her cellular phone. A warrant has been issued for her arrest. And for the first time in her children's lives, she has missed their birthdays—several months ago she sent her children to live with her sister-in-law to keep them safe.

Sitting down with me for this interview is the first moment of calm she's had since mid-June, Jimenez says. That's when she and thousands of other women—many of whom had never participated in a march or rally before—orchestrated the takeover of the state television and radio stations and broadcast live their opposition to state violence. Their actions earned these women a place among Oaxaca's most wanted activists, sought by the para-police gangs that serve the state government.

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Colors of Violence

By Andrea Smith

A young Native woman was once gang raped by prominent members of an urban Indian community I lived in. When she sought justice, the community instead blamed her--she was dividing the community by airing its "dirty laundry." At the same time, she had difficulty getting help from the mainstream anti-violence movement. In fact, the year before I began working in sexual assault services in that city, only one Native woman had received services at a rape crisis center. The primary reason Native women gave for not going outside the community for help was that it was like appealing to a "foreign government" for assistance.

This woman's story exemplifies the difficulties faced by women of color who are victimized by sexual or domestic violence. Communities of color often tell women to keep silent about sexual and domestic violence to maintain a united front against racism.

Unfortunately, racial justice organizing has generally focused on racism as it affects men and has often ignored the forms of racism and sexism that women of color face. Consequently, women of color must often go outside of their communities to receive services from domestic violence shelters and rape crisis centers.

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