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Ciudad Juarez

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Feminicide as ‘act’ and ‘process’: A geography of gendered violence in Oaxaca

Study
North America

Executive Summary

Feminicide in Mexico is most notoriously associated with the serial deaths of women in and around Ciudad Juárez. A 2005 congressional investigation expanded, nonetheless, the geographical scope of feminicide, arguing that the phenomenon was present throughout the country. One location that was identified early on as also experiencing a high rate of feminicide was the state of Oaxaca, in the southern part of Mexico. Inscribed within this shifting geopolitical terrain, this article draws on an understanding of feminicide as both act and process in order to offer a critical portrayal of feminicide in Oaxaca. Beginning with a discussion of the profiles of feminicide in Oaxaca, the analysis moves out to explore the multifaceted processes that enable feminicide to occur. In so doing, we also explore how feminicide intertwines with other forms of social and political violence in Oaxaca. From an ethical-moral terrain, this article joins a broader movement in certain corners of feminist geography that is concerned with ‘making bodies count’ and the politics of witnessing acts of violence. This article is only accessible with journal subscription.

Author(s)

Patricia M. Martin
Nohora Carvajal
As debates about femicide have emerged in Mexico and other parts of Latin America, the concept has been transformed and enriched. This theoretical intervention is partially captured through the debate that has arisen among Latin American feminist activists and theorists regarding the terms femicidio and feminicidio. In part, the debate that surrounds these two terms highlights tensions between femicide as an act (i.e. a female homicide) and femicide as a process, which draws attention to the structures and patterns that inhere in this form of violence. Feminicidio, which in Spanish invokes this sense of process, sharpens and deepens the political nature of the original term. To clearly demark these transnational (now southern to northern) theoretical engagements, Fregoso and Bejarano (2010) have introduced the term ‘feminicide’ into English.

 

 


 

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