Monday, July 19, 2010

Ni Una Mas Exhibit

Last week, OCGTSPS visited the Ni Una Mas exhibit at Drexel's new Leonard Pearlstein Gallery on 34th and Filbert Streets. With a guided tour by the museum's head curator, we received an in depth look into the powerful and moving exhibit. Here is the curator's statement on Ni Una Mas:


"Since 1993, more than 600 young women and girls have been the victims of an ongoing terror inthe city and surrounding area of Juarez, Mexico, an area just across the river/border from El Paso,Texas The majority are Mexican, but a number are American citizens. Nearly all are young studentsand factory girls--maquiladoras between the ages of 14 and 22. Some are missing without a trace,but hundreds have been discovered dead in multiple sites in the nearby desert. From theirremains it is certain they have been battered, sexually abused, and often grotesquely mutilated;some have had their organs removed. Various theories abound, but the greatest mystery beyondwho is responsible, is how the Mexican government and our own have allowed the femicide tocontinue. Very little has been done by the local Juarez police, the State of Chihuahua or theNational Government to find the killers or to prevent new murders. The FBI, the UN and AmnestyInternational have attempted to investigate, but their offers are rebuffed and the crimes remainunsolved. In the years since the abductions began, the families, in particular, the mothers ofthese girls, a few dedicated journalists, musicians, filmmakers and artists have kept the chroniclealive as the horrific deaths continue.


How artists respond in the face of these atrocities is the core of this exhibit Ni Una Mas: TheJuarez Murders. Twenty notable artists—men, women, Latino and American bear witness to themany faces and facets of this tragedy. Their responses are personal and varied as they confrontedthe implicit sexism, drug politics, corruption and indifference behind the story as well as thesadness and outrage at the continued demeaning and devaluation of women. They remind us thatthis crisis demands action since every day another girl is at risk of suffering vicious abuse andcertain death. We owe a debt to Frontera 450 + presented by the Station Museum in Houston in2006. Four years later and 150 more girls missing, we are impelled to try anew." (Source: http://www.drexel.edu/juarez/exhibition/)


Unfortunately the exhibit closed on July 16th but the message of Ni Una Mas continues to live on. If you want to learn more about the injustices happening at Juarez, please visit www.drexel.edu/juarez. You can read about Congress Resolution 90, see videos and interviews, and find out what you can do to make a stand on social justice.


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