{"id":6871,"date":"2022-10-18T16:01:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-18T16:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/?p=6871"},"modified":"2022-10-18T16:01:02","modified_gmt":"2022-10-18T16:01:02","slug":"esther-chavez-cano-the-woman-who-revolutionized-the-fight-against-femicide-in-ciudad-juarez-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/2022\/10\/esther-chavez-cano-the-woman-who-revolutionized-the-fight-against-femicide-in-ciudad-juarez-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"Esther Ch\u00e1vez Cano: The Woman Who Revolutionized the Fight Against Femicide in Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez, Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My great-aunt, Esther Ch\u00e1vez Cano, was the first to stand up to the gruesome violence against women in Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez, Mexico, which is located in the north of Mexico and borders El Paso, Texas. She orchestrated the fight against femicide when she began gathering newspaper clippings in 1993 about the multiple women found dead in the desert surrounding the city.  These numbers represent Mexico\u2019s killing fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In 1999, Ch\u00e1vez Cano used my father\u2019s childhood home to create history by establishing her non-profit organization \u201cCasa Amiga Esther Ch\u00e1vez Cano,\u201d which was Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez\u2019s first rape crisis center. Years later the organization moved to Paseos de Las Torres in Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez, where it remains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCasa Amiga\u201d provides intervention services for women and children that experience domestic and familiar abuse. The organization provides legal assistance, medical and psychological treatment, safe houses and therapy and rehabilitation for abusers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I met my great-aunt when I was three years old at her home in Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez, Mexico. It saddens me to say that I do not remember the encounter, but I do have the photos, and I treasure them dearly. Esther Ch\u00e1vez Cano died of cancer on Christmas day in 2009. I grew up with the powerful stories of how she fought for women. I did not understand the magnitude of what her work entailed until this past year when I researched femicide in Mexico for an article for my journalism class. It was during that time that I felt I understood and got to know my great-aunt. (https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/2022\/01\/in-mexico-feminicide-is-at-an-all-time-high-while-investigations-are-at-an-all-time-low-each-cross-is-a-case-a-pain\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a toddler, I did not know how influential the woman I was crawling over was. I could not ask her the questions that I have now. There are so many questions that I wish I could ask her, so many stories that I wish she could tell me. I don\u2019t have her anymore, but I do have her book Esther Ch\u00e1vez Cano: Construyendo Caminos y Esperanzas<\/em> published by C\u00e1tedra Unesco de Derechos Humanos UNAM-M\u00e9xico, Academia Mexicana Derechos Humanos and Casa Amiga. I do have her legacy, which I hope to continue throughout this independent study on femicide in Mexico. I hope that I am making her proud. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I wish that this article was a sit-down interview with my great-aunt, who we call \u201cLa Tia G\u00fcera,\u201d which translates to \u2018the blonde aunt,\u2019 but I will try to do her legacy justice in this article through the book that she wrote and the people that had the honor of knowing her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My father, Enrique Ch\u00e1vez-Arvizo, a professor of philosophy at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, is extremely proud to be Ch\u00e1vez Cano\u2019s nephew. They had an extremely close relationship and loved each other dearly. \u201cT\u00eda G\u00fcera was my favorite aunt. She was intelligent, articulate and urbane,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My father \u201cwill never forget the time\u201d when Ch\u00e1vez Cano told him, \u201c\u2018Quiqui, you have me writing letters every week on behalf of prisoners conscience for Amnesty International. I might as well go write for the local newspaper.\u2019\u201d And so she did, \u201cat the Diario of Ju\u00e1rez she had her own column where she incessantly advocated for the rights of women.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love how she was always with the men. She was the only female I ever saw socializing with the men instead of being in the kitchen with the women,\u201d Ch\u00e1vez-Arvizo remembered. Ch\u00e1vez Cano refused to succumb to the machismo<\/em> culture in Mexican society. Ch\u00e1vez-Arvizo smiled as he recalled how his aunt would sit with her brother and his friends on holidays and gatherings and outdrink them, curse with them and not serve them. Three things that were unbecoming of a Mexican woman in that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe taught me that a city that buries its women would soon be burying its sons and that\u2019s exactly what happened in my native city of Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez. The violence is no longer limited to targeting women. It’s targeting the population at large,\u201d Ch\u00e1vez-Arvizo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At my grandmother\u2019s funeral my father recited a eulogy that was written in honor of Bertolt Brecht, but he believes it applies for his aunt as well. \u201cThere are women who fight one day and they are good. There are others who fight for one year, and they are better. There are those who fight for many years, and they are very good. But there are those who struggle all their lives: They are the essential ones.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ch\u00e1vez-Arvizo often reminds me how dangerous it was for my great-aunt to create and work at Casa Amiga because of the husbands, boyfriends and fathers that would come banging on the doors demanding that their women be returned to them. She wrote of her experience with Casa Amiga\u2019s receptionist, Mar\u00eda Luisa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ch\u00e1vez Cano opens her book with a chilling anecdote of Mar\u00eda Luisa Carsoli who was murdered on the steps of Casa Amiga\u2019s original location on December 21, 2001. The following quotes were translated from Spanish to English. \u201cIt\u2019s a sad memory, imprinted with her blood in my memory and in my heart,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mar\u00eda Luisa\u2019s husband, Ricardo Medina Acosta, would leave her flowers at Casa Amiga. Then he started to wait outside the exit. He escalated and approached the staff for help to get closer to his wife, and then he insisted that she and him start couples therapy to save their marriage. The center brought in an outside psychologist to talk with her husband and give the center his opinion. \u201cThe answer was blunt,\u201d she explained, Acosta \u201cis a dangerous individual, keep him away from her and the Center.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One night Ch\u00e1vez Cano received a call. \u201cEsther now I know that Ricardo is going to kill me,\u201d Mar\u00eda Luisa told her in tears. The violence from her husband was so horrific that her daughter begged her father to please not kill her mother. Acosta had boarded up the windows to lock Mar\u00eda Luisa inside. She managed to escape but had to leave her young kids behind. \u201cI had to escape,\u201d she told Ch\u00e1vez Cano<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immediately, Ch\u00e1vez Cano brought Mar\u00eda Luisa to stay at her house. \u201cHer desperation and her sadness were enormous.\u201d A few weeks later, her husband found her. She went to a different safe house but then chose not to live her life in fear. Mar\u00eda Luisa decided that she had to confront Acosta, divorce him, and regain custody of her kids<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon after, Ch\u00e1vez Cano heard the news that Acosta had murdered Mar\u00eda Luisa, and her world stopped. \u201cI felt something break inside me.\u201d Like all victims of femicide, Mar\u00eda Luisa deserved to live, \u201cShe would have been saved, like other women have since 2003, that have a place where they can learn about their rights, beginning with the right to life.\u201d Ch\u00e1vez Cano struggled to accept that she could not save Mar\u00eda Luisa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ch\u00e1vez Cano arrived at Casa Amiga to see her employee Lourdes Hern\u00e1ndez and her young son Francisco in shambles. She hugged them as they sobbed and repeated \u201cRicardo killed her.\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez was no match for Acosta\u2019s fury. \u201cHelp me,\u201d Mar\u00eda Luisa begged her, \u201cthat he doesn\u2019t kill me.\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez begged for Acosta not to hurt Mar\u00eda. She ran to a nearby torter\u00edlla<\/em> for help, but the worker said that he was busy. Hern\u00e1ndez pushed Acosta and screamed for help, but Ricardo slammed her against a wall, and that\u2019s when Acosta took out the knife. Mar\u00eda did not stand a chance. Francisco harrowingly recounted the moment that Mar\u00eda Luisa died, \u201cthe tip of the knife exited through Mar\u00eda Luisa\u2019s back\u201d he cried. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Casa Amiga was in chaos. Local, state and federal authorities arrived at the scene. Ch\u00e1vez Cano had to try to comfort herself, her staff and Mar\u00eda Luisa\u2019s loved ones while simultaneously dealing with the authorities. She organized a conference that she said had a strong impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis death is not forgotten, it lives not only in the hearts of those who loved her, but in that of a part of society, so heartbroken and damaged by femicide and the insecurity that lives on our border,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acosta was detained for two months after he attempted to rob a residence. He also faced a twelve-year prison sentence but was released. At the end of Mar\u00eda Luisa\u2019s section, Ch\u00e1vez Cano explained that there would soon be more murderers on the loose, because men, such as Acosta, consider themselves the owners of their wives and children. The physical, sexual and emotional abuse that Mar\u00eda Luisa endured is indescribable, Ch\u00e1vez Cano stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ch\u00e1vez Cano knew in her soul that Mar\u00eda Luisa\u2019s husband held a deep hatred for her. She often pondered that if she had been at the center, her dead body would have laid alongside Mar\u00eda Luisa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDescansa en paz, querida Mar\u00eda Luisa. Siempre estar\u00e1s en nuestro coraz\u00f3n,\u201d which translates to, \u201cRest in peace, my beloved Mar\u00eda Luisa. You\u2019ll always be in our hearts.\u201d Ch\u00e1vez Cano carried Mar\u00eda Luisa\u2019s story with her always and Casa Amiga continues to carry the memory of Mar\u00eda Luisa. She will never be forgotten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ch\u00e1vez Cano moved from Mexico City to Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez in 1982. She reflected that \u201cTo arrive from the capital to this city was a very strong blow. Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez impacted me for being a city of women.\u201d Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez is upheld by the shoulders of Mexican women, without them, the city would hardly run. For a city that depends on the labor of its women, it is incomprehensible that the men dispose of women like tissues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1993, Ch\u00e1vez Cano started to make lists of the young and poor women who were murdered solely for being women. She gathered their pictures which she found in their mother\u2019s houses, on poles labeled \u2018MISSING,\u2019 and more. She described their pictures as \u201cdemanding justice to be able to rest in peace.\u201d Her personal notes, news clippings, photos and documents were archived by the University of New Mexico and are on display. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ch\u00e1vez Cano saw different spectrums of violence. In the back of her mind, she saw the drunk who threw hot tamales at his wife\u2019s face and burned her, and she remembered the father and grandfather who beat a two-year-old. The men feel powerful when they commit these atrocities, when they encourage their partner to commit suicide, abuse drugs, or he gets his power from raping and beating his kids, she writes. It\u2019s a power struggle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These memories ran circles in her mind, which she claimed is why she wrote the book. Ch\u00e1vez Cano needed to call attention to the facts. Ju\u00e1rez is a battle filed, she explained, it is full of terror, shame, and humiliation that leads children to find solace in alcohol, drugs, gangs and later sends them to the cemetery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through her book, Ch\u00e1vez Cano wanted to portray the strength, bravery, and energy of the women who have escaped and survived their partner\u2019s prison of horror. After surviving tremendous abuse, these women were able to regain their faith in humanity. Ch\u00e1vez Cano wanted the world to know that these women were and still are heroes. The victims of brutal rapes and murders are a wound in this country that cannot heal, she maintains. She called femicide \u201cA demand without fulfillment.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability, the term \u2018femicide\u2019 was first jused by John Corry in 1801 in his book A Satirical View of London at the Commencement of the Nineteenth Century<\/em>, where he used \u2018femicide\u2019 to refer to the murder of a woman. The term was reintroduced publicly in 1976 by Diana Russel who advocated against the violence of women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ch\u00e1vez Cano has a section in her book titled \u201cWhen the institutions don\u2019t respond, it\u2019s institutional violence,\u201d where she calls attention to the mistreatment of victims. The police continually threaten women with prison if they file a false report, they victim blame women for getting raped based off of their clothing, and they advise women who are brave enough to report domestic violence, not to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The police will blame rape victims if they did not defend themselves and go so far as to defend the rapist. Generally, the authorities allow twenty-four hours to pass after the perpetrator was caught committing the crime and then rarely exercise the arrest warrant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Journalists frequently asked Ch\u00e1vez Cano what specifically made her start to count the number of femicides and dedicate herself to the cause, but she never had an answer. \u201cI cannot answer this question, maybe because there were many circumstances that led me to involve myself in this terrible problem and all the families who suffered the disappearance and death of a loved one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I spoke to the director of Casa Amiga Esther Ch\u00e1vez Cano, Lidia Cordero Cabrera. Cordero Cabrera has worked at the organization since she was 19 in 2001. Ch\u00e1vez Cano made sure that Cordero Cabrera finished university. She assured me that my great-aunt is never forgotten among her and her colleagues. They feel Ch\u00e1vez Cano\u2019s energy as they fight tirelessly for the women of Mexico. The following conversation has been translated from Spanish to English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ch\u00e1vez Cano always finds a way to pop up, Cordero Cabrera said with a smile. Recently, Cordero Cabrera was at a reunion with women that Casa Amiga had helped. One of the survivors shared her story. She called Casa Amiga for help and refuge and was instructed to go to the center, but\u2014when she arrived\u2014the doors were locked, and no one was there. She sat on the curb in tears and disbelief that yet another center was sending her back to a life of violence. She called Casa Amiga again and spoke to a woman, my great-aunt, who assured her that help was on the way. Help arrived and the woman was able to escape her violent home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the reunion, my great-aunt was brought up by the colleagues of Cordero Cabrera. Everyone used the past tense in reference to Ch\u00e1vez Cano, since she passed away, and the woman was in disbelief. She did not know that my great-aunt had died. She burst into tears to grieve the woman that had saved her life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cordero Cabrera had the chance to work with Ch\u00e1vez Cano before her untimely death in 2009. She said that meeting Ch\u00e1vez Cano was a \u201cbefore and after\u201d in her life. She described Ch\u00e1vez Cano as \u201can extremely strong woman, but at the same time, very tender and maternal in the sense of her support and understanding.\u201d Cordero reaffirmed that \u201cit was a before and after. First this integral support, and then to discover feminism and what has to do with it, and to discover the fight for women\u2019s rights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cordero said that she got to know Ch\u00e1vez Cano more closely after the murder of Mar\u00eda Luisa. Cordero was a volunteer for Casa Amiga at the time and had already witnessed how Ch\u00e1vez Cano had opened doors for the movement and for women, but that day, she met a truly \u201cimpressive Esther.\u201d Ch\u00e1vez Cano moved \u201cheaven and earth to fight for justice for Mar\u00eda Luisa,\u201d she reflected. \u201cTo see her point out all the inequalities, the discrimination, but at the same time, to unite with other women to demand the fight,\u201d was unbelievable to witness, Cordero said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was the day that I saw her in all of her splendor of demand, of fight, indignation, sadness, anger for what had occurred at the doors of Casa Amiga, but also to [see her] talk about the fight with other women, to unite with other women and raise her voice for other women.\u201d For Cordero, that day affirmed for her that she wanted to keep doing what Ch\u00e1vez Cano did \u201cfor a very long time.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To put it simply, \u201cShe was a life example,\u201d Cordero stated. Ch\u00e1vez Cano \u201cwas a woman who marked history\u201d but in addition to her impact on history, she impacted the lives of many women. \u201cWe continue to remember her, her lessons, the words that she used, and what she said.\u201d Cordero explained that Ch\u00e1vez Cano was a woman who did what she said. She could stand in front of the authorities and tell her truth, \u201cas small as she was, she had an impressive force,\u201d Cordero joked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Ch\u00e1vez Cano walked into a room, Cordero described how the room would stop and eagerly listen to her. They listened to what she had to say and internalized the force in which she said it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPersonally, in my life as a woman and as an activist, she was an unconditional support and an example of life. As a feminist, she also created the path for us after her to follow.\u201d Ch\u00e1vez Cano taught Cordero so much. She was so committed to her work, so organized, and so diligent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ch\u00e1vez Cano founded the women\u2019s rights activist group Ocho de Marzo. With her friend Judith Galarza, she wrote that they initiated a fight without an end: the fight for the rights of women and the arrest of the murderers of women. \u201cThus was born the first feminist group, whose name was copied from that of Chihuahua: Grupo Ocho de Marzo.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She credited M\u00f3nica Alicia Ju\u00e1rez and women like her for the existence of the feminist group. On March 8, 2022, Mexico\u2019s 2022 feminist meetings began at Cotton Field Memorial. M\u00f3nica Alicia Ju\u00e1rez gave a panel on \u201cAbortion, controversy that persists.\u201d Without their support, Ch\u00e1vez Cano said, the group would not exist. She labeled Cecilia Pego, Ivonne Ramos, Alpha Escobedo, Laura Jim\u00e9nez and Paula Villarreal as crucial members of the organization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before starting Casa Amiga and becoming the renowned human rights activist that she was, Ch\u00e1vez Cano was a journalist for a Mexican paper El Diario.<\/em> In one of her articles from September 13, 1995 she wrote, \u201cThis most conflictive city needs an agency to attend to sexual crimes, run exclusively by women\u2014a dream and struggle of the 8th of March organization\u2014an agency that will help the victims of violence to present their cases without suffering new aggressions from doctors and police who much too frequently consider the victim guilty.\u201d She established the agency that she dreamed of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe must understand that rape is an act of murderous aggression, born in self-hatred and carried out in an abhorrent manner, its root causes unknown to the man who commits the crime. And we distance ourselves from a sense of culpability and add to the damage caused to so many women,\u201d she reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Esther Ch\u00e1vez Cano received countless awards and recognition for her human rights work. In 2008, Mexican President Felipe Calder\u00f3n awarded Ch\u00e1vez Cano with Mexico\u2019s most prestigious human rights award: The National Human Rights award. The award is given by the Mexican Government through its National Human Rights Commission to people who have fought diligently in the defense of human rights. Other recipients include Isabel Miranda de Wallace who investigated her son\u2019s kidnapping and got the kidnappers arrested, Jaime P\u00e9rez Calzada a lawyer who defends the human rights of people with disabilities, and more.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cAlthough it seems incredible,\u201d Ch\u00e1vez Cano reflected on the award, \u201cI had not previously perceived the importance of this award and that I had to live this impactful experience to realize it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ch\u00e1vez Cano considered it a \u201chigh honor\u201d that the 2008 National Human Rights Award recognized more than her person \u201cin the effort that, for more than three decades, I have undertaken with many other people in favor of the fundamental rights of human beings, particularly those of women and children, in the limited scenario of Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez, Chihuahua.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below is a map from a site named Los Femicidios in Mexico that shows the number of femicides throughout the country from January 2016 to July 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My great-aunt fought diligently for the women of Mexico. It is the great honor of my life to be her niece and to continue her work.  I will spend the rest of this semester raising awareness on the issue of femicide through articles posted to the Fieldston News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My great-aunt, Esther Ch\u00e1vez Cano, was the first to stand up to the gruesome violence against women in Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez, Mexico, which is located in the north of Mexico and borders El Paso, Texas. She orchestrated the fight against femicide when she began gathering newspaper clippings in 1993 about the multiple women found dead in the desert surrounding the city.  These numbers represent Mexico\u2019s killing fields. In 1999, Ch\u00e1vez Cano used my father\u2019s childhood home<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":295,"featured_media":6872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[318,441],"tags":[],"coauthors":[418],"class_list":["post-6871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-world"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Screen-Shot-2022-10-18-at-11.59.57-AM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/295"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6873,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6871\/revisions\/6873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6871"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}