Descriptive Summary
Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Acquisition Information
Biography
Scope and Content
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: Alicia Gaspar de Alba Collection of Maquiladora
Murders Research Materials Collection,
Date (inclusive): 2005
Collection number: 109
Creator: Gaspar de Alba,
Alicia
Extent:
4.5 linear foot
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library.
Chicano Studies Research Center, UCLA
Los Angeles, California 90095-1490
Abstract: This is a collection of artifacts made by
students to honor those women murdered in Juarez, Mexico in what has
become known as the Maquiladora Murders. Researchers who would like to
indicate errors of fact or omissions in this finding aid can contact the
research center at www.chicano.ucla.edu
Physical location: CSRC Archive Library
Language of Material: Collection materials in English
Access
Access is available by appointment for UCLA student and faculty
researchers as well as independent researchers.To view the collection or
any part of it, please contact the CSRC at http://www.chicano.ucla.edu/
Publication Rights
For students and faculty researchers of UCLA, all others by
permission only. Copyright has not been assigned to the Chicano Studies
Research Center. All requests for permission to publish or quote from
manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Archivist and/or the
Librarian at the Chicano Studies Research Center Library. Permission for
publication is given on behalf of the UCLA Chicano Studies Research
Center as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include
or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be
obtained.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Alicia Gaspar de Alba Collection of
Maquiladora Murders Research Materials Collection, 109, Chicano Studies
Research Center, UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles.
Acquisition Information
This collection has been deeded to the UCLA CSRC. Deed on file in the
Archive office
Biography
Alicia Gaspar de Alba is an award-winning novelist as well as a
professor and poet. Gaspar de Alba was born in El Paso, Texas on July
29, 1958. She taught English to Mexican executives and staff members of
General Motors' maquiladoras at the Instituto Interlingua in Juarez,
Chihuahua from 1978-1980. In 1979, The National Research Council (NRC)
in Washington, DC offered her a Ford Foundation fellowship for
minorities due to her excellent academic performance. She earned her
B.A. in English in 1980 and M.A. in English in 1983 from the University
of Texas in El Paso. She enrolled as a PhD student in American Studies
at the University of Iowa in 1985 but then quit a year later due to
culture shock. Afterward, Gaspar de Alba returned to her doctoral
studies in American Studies, this time at the University of New Mexico,
where she graduated with distinction. She focused her research on
Chicano/a art, pop culture, literature, and writing. For her
dissertation, "Mi Casa [No] Es Su Casa: The Cultural Politics of the
Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation Exhibit," she won the Ralph
Henry Gabriel American Studies Dissertation Fellowship in 1993, a Ford
Foundation Fellowship in 1993, and a Chicana Dissertation Fellowship
from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1992. It was named
the Best Dissertation in the field of American Studies in 1994. The
University of Texas Press published the dissertation as a book, titled
Chicano Art Inside/Outside the Master's House: Cultural Politics and the
CARA Exhibition, in January 1998.
Scope and Content
This is a collection of approximately 3 linear feet of artifacts
created and collected by Alicia Gaspar de Alba and Sandra Ruiz
From UCLA Today: Since the signing of the North American Free Trade
Agreement, young women from poor villages in the interior of Mexico have
flocked to Ciudad Juárez, the city that borders El Paso, Texas,
to look for jobs in American-owned maquiladoras or factories. Instead,
what hundreds of them have found is a gruesome and early death, said
Alicia Gaspar de Alba, associate director of the Chicano Studies
Research Center. Since 1993, more than 300 young women and girls have
been killed in Ciudad Juárez, across the border from Gaspar de
Alba's hometown of El Paso. This 10-year crime wave of deadly violence
will be the focus of an international conference, "The Maquiladora
Murders, Or, Who is Killing the Women of Juárez?" slated for Oct.
31-Nov. 2 at UCLA. It will coincide with Days of the Dead, a Mexican
holiday that honors the dead. "You have to understand that these crimes
are more than murders," said Gaspar de Alba, who wrote a mystery novel,
"The Factory: A Novel on the Maquiladora Murders." "They are ritual acts
of pure and unadulterated hatred and desprecio (scorn) toward the
indigenous female body. Who can hate these powerless women so much?" The
arrests made so far in some of the deaths have usually turned out to be
controversial or erroneous, Gaspar de Alba said. For instance, police
allegedly tortured some of the suspects into confessing they were guilty
while other suspects have been released, she said. Still, the murders of
young women in Juárez have not stopped. In February 2003, four
new bodies were discovered, including one of a 5-year-old girl with
multiple stab wounds and her eyes removed. Many of the victims remain
unidentified. "Beyond exploring the many theories that exist around the
question 'Who is killing the women of Juárez?,' the conference
will look at the complicity of silence that has protected the killers on
both sides of the border," Gaspar de Alba said. Participants will
examine the sexism that surrounds the murders. According to Gaspar de
Alba, some people, including the authorities, believe: "She asked for it
by the way she dressed." Organizers also hope to draw attention to the
American companies who employ many women. Many of the victims were
killed on their way home from work at night. "The maquiladora industry
needs to be made accountable for not protecting its personnel," Gaspar
de Alba said.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this
collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Subjects
Alicia Gaspar de Alba
Hate Crime
Juarez Mexico
Maquiladora Murders
Sandra Ruiz
The Maquiladora Murders, Or, Who is Killing the Women of
Juárez?
Women