Desert Blood: The Juárez Murders

Irene, furious with Ivon for not taking her to the fair, decides to go meet Raquel by herself. She parks behind a truck with a license plate that says “LONE R★NGR” and meets Raquel and her niece Myrna, a girl around Irene’s age. Raquel seems disappointed that Ivon is not there, and she introduces Irene to her brother’s friend and the friend’s brother Paco. Also present is Salvador Peñasco, or Junior—who was one of the interns working on Cecilia’s autopsy—and his chauffeur.

Irene wonders at the attractions, and Myrna rolls her eyes. Irene dismisses it: “[t]his was the first time Irene was on her own like this and she wasn’t going to let any Juárez chick’s attitude bring her down” (102). Raquel goes to speak with a handsome blonde man in a cowboy hat—J.W. from Ivon’s flight—who is standing at the Frontelingua table. She tells Myrna they will meet at midnight for the concert. 

Myrna says Irene sounds “like a pocha,” or an Americanized girl who speaks Spanish with an accent, and Irene feels conspicuous around the Mexican girls. Irene buys jewelry for her family and is insulted in Spanish by someone working the games. She feels like everyone is looking at her “because she was from the other side” and that they think she is a “sell-out” (104).

When Myrna orders drinks, J.W. pays, despite Irene’s objections. He asks Irene if she is related to Ivon, whom he met on the plane and saw with Irene in the airport. Irene pulls Myrna away. The girls are then joined by Myrna’s friend Amber and her boyfriend Héctor. The four drink heavily. Myrna says Amber is also a pocha, and Amber objects. They argue over whether Amber’s mother is a feminist “[j]ust because she has a college degree and runs her own business” (109).

They continue drinking at the concert with Raquel and the men from the booth. Irene laughs at a joke about “wetbacks”—Mexicans living illegally in America. The group ends up at Paco’s house in a colonia—a settlement of low-income houses. Irene does not understand why so many people are going in and out of the house or why someone like Paco is friends with a person who has a chauffeur. Though Raquel tells the girls not to go to the Río Grande, Irene takes off her shoes and swims. Men nearby laugh and call her a wetback.

The next day, Ivon reads an article in which Bob Russell exonerates the state-organized Task Force of neglect or wrongdoing. He claims the factories must find safer ways of transporting the women who work there, because currently buses drop them off in dark, dangerous areas. He also suggests the killer crosses from El Paso to Juárez to commit the murders and that Amen Hakin Hasaan could be a suspect. The phone rings; it is Ivon’s mother, so she does not pick up. The night before, Ivon and Ximena drank and argued late into the night because Ximena was angry that Ivon no longer wanted to adopt Jorgito. 

Ivon connects the phone line to the computer so she can do online research. She is suspicious of Father Francis for knowing the nurse at Elsa’s factory; she believes he had an obligation to report what he knew, regardless of it being revealed in confession. She also wonders how he knows so much about the murders and where to find the bodies. She calls his church and has a tense conversation with him, during which she asks for information on convicted murderer Richard Ramírez.

Ivon then spends time researching the murders. One tourist website, Borderlines, contains advertisements for young women in bikinis, informing men that “[p]rostitution is legal here” and that “beautiful, available, hot-blooded young ladies” live in Juárez (117). A link, “Those Sexy Latin Ladies” (117), leads to a list of clubs in the La Mariscal district. There is a map of the area surrounding the gymnasium and a Sayonara Club coupon for a free drink.

She finds Richard Ramírez grew up near where she did, and she reads his statement at his sentencing, in which he called people in the room “trematodes” (118). The Juárez murders look very much like his murders, and Ivon wonders if he has a copycat. She learns about the violent history of the border and the inefficiency of the investigations. 

After disconnecting the internet, Ivon immediately receives a phone call from her mother, who is angry that she and Irene are not there for lunch. She asks what time they returned from the fair. Ivon, concerned, insists Irene is not there. Lydia chastises her for not taking her to the fair when she said she would and, convinced something has happened, hangs up.

Frantic about Irene, Ivon calls her uncle Joe, who calls Patrick. While she waits for Uncle Joe to pick her up, Ivon calls local hospitals but finds no evidence of Irene. Uncle Joe, Lydia’s brother, was Ivon’s “strongest supporter during her high school wars with her mother” (12). Uncle Joe assures Ivon nothing has happened to Irene but agrees to help her find her. He also tells her Patrick says it is too early to consider Irene missing. Ivon chastises herself for not calling Irene the night before and wonders if they should contact hospitals and jails in Juárez.

Uncle Joe reminds Ivon of the time her father was caught in the truck of Ivon’s Aunt Luz. He had disappeared for three days and was found playing dominoes with a friend down the street. Lydia forbade Luz ever from seeing her husband again, and Luz disappeared for 25 years, returning only to pay her respects when Grandma Maggie passed away.

Ivon remembers that she and Irene had planned to see Raquel at the fair and is relieved to think Irene may be with her. However, she grows worried when she remembers how Raquel seduced Ivon in high school; she wonders if Raquel seduced Irene and thinks, “Better in Raquel’s arms than in a kidnapper’s” (127).

When Ivon and Uncle Joe pull up, Lydia, runs out and begins beating Ivon on the front lawn as the neighbors watch. Ivon goes inside to nurse a bloody nose, thinking “of all the times [Lydia] had done this to her as a child, embarrassed her like this in front of her schoolmates, her teachers, her cousins” (128-29). Her mother’s public beatings inspired Ivon to run away twice growing up; Uncle Joe’s second wife even wanted to report Lydia for abuse.

While Ivon cleans up in the bathroom, Uncle Joe and Lydia shout at each other in the living room. Lydia says Ivon’s lifestyle killed her father; Uncle Joe reminds her that their sister Luz was also gay. He says Ivon is a model daughter and asks Lydia why she “can’t ever accept people for who they are” (130). Lydia says Ivon is “her sister’s keeper” (131) and that she should have called Irene.

Ivon comes out of the bathroom and asks to borrow Uncle Joe’s car to go to Juárez. Outside, Uncle Joe gives Ivon his shirt to replace her torn, bloody one. He retrieves a gun from the glove compartment, saying he does not want her driving into Juárez with a gun.

Ivon goes to Raquel’s workplace, Instituto Frontelingua. Finding no one there, she waits in the parking lot, deliberately standing in a masculine manner for the benefit of the leery parking attendant who  thought she was either a chola—a gang member who “betrayed their own culture”—or a lesbian, who betrayed “their gender, their families, and their religion” (134).

When Raquel returns, Ivon bursts into the building and pushes her against the wall, demanding to know where Irene is. Raquel begins sobbing and tells her she met Irene at the fair but does not know where she is now. Ivon is enraged when Raquel tells her about the party at Paco’s house. Irene was drunk, and Raquel did not want her to drive home. She begged Irene to get out of the river so she could take Myrna home, but Irene refused, so she then left her there, telling a friend to keep an eye on Irene. However, when she returned, everyone had left. 

Ivon wonders if Irene was mistaken for an illegal alien and picked up by Border Patrol. Raquel says she asked Paco to tow her car home from the fairgrounds, and Ivon demands to go to Paco’s house so she can question him. On the way, Ivon calls Uncle Joe to tell him what happened and to have him call the Border Patrol. Raquel gives Ivon a picture of Irene and Myrna taken at the fair so Ivon can tell Uncle Joe what Irene was wearing. Looking at the picture, Ivon is angry with herself for not taking Irene to the fair, and she smashes the steering wheel with her fist. Raquel tells her it was not her fault.