From the red-light districts in Ciudad Juárez to remote villages hidden away in the mountains of Chihuahua comes a tale of one of the darkest crimes to be recorded in the history of humankind. If
I Die in Juárez traces the lives of three young women—Evita, a street child; Petra, a maquiladora worker; and Mayela, a Tarahumara Indian girl—who together uncover Juárez's forbidden secret:
the abduction and murder of young women. Bound together by blood, honor, an ancient chant, and a mysterious photo, the girls bring the murderous streets of Juárez to life.
Duarte's writing is laced with anguish and desperation and brings to life the grime and sleaze of Juárez.
Brilliantly and powerfully told by a superb storyteller and human rights activist. The saga of her three brave women characters walking through fire, hatred, greed and human depravity, holding a torch of hope and transformation in their path is unforgettable.
The result of Duarte's research, creativity and passion is a novel that is as stunning as it is heart-rending.
—El Paso Times
Based on the
author's interviews with relatives of murdered women, If I Die in Juárez is brilliantly crafted to give readers the experience of walking in the shoes of women who daily risk being abducted
and murdered in the "capital city of murdered women," joining thousands of others who for more than a decade have disappeared from Juárez, las desaparecidas, brutally murdered by assassins who
have gone unpunished. The agony of one of the darkest tales in human history brings to light a strange hope, illusive yet constant, resisting lies, betrayal, and the desert's silent sentence of death.