Brainstorm #5- Khani Priest

Senorita Extraviada challenges representations of the young women through the depiction of the whole story and information from the people closest to them. This film sheds a different kind of light on these young women. Not a light of blame or denial, but a light of truth and compassion. We got to perceive these women as human beings first and victims second which directly challenges the perception that these young women are disposable. The families and mothers who experience these great tragedies use art, altars, and persistence as resiliency practices to confront the tragedies and to hold authorities accountable. They relentlessly ask about the cases and how these cases are going along with taking matters into their own hands by asking around and even going as far as searching for bodies. Art is used through the Voces sin Eco movement in their public displays of black crosses on pink backgrounds which signifies a strong image. This piece of graffiti art represents the missing and murdered women along with hope and persistence in recognizing the violence. Lisa Cacho's concept of "social death" is relevant to these readings because these women were subjugated to "social death" in the context of their specific society. They were the outcasts because of class, race, gender and place of residence. They lived in the borderlands which was/is considered some of the poorest regions in Mexico. This concept also comes up in the explanation the state gives to these deaths. According to the state, these women were at fault because of their lifestyles and "double lives" which is literally de-socializing these women from society and looking down upon them. This is obviously not what is true nor even remotely correct, but it helped the government establish reason. This is a problem that requires more than wrongful blame and reasoning; it requires justice for the women involved and future generations.