Mother’s Day – we celebrate it on different days around the globe, but it means the same thing.  It is a day when children of all ages say thank you; a day we can tell our moms how special they are and how much we love them.

Yet in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, many mothers will only receive meaningless silence and painful tears, instead of flowers and family hugs.  They will not be celebrating with their daughters this year.

And indeed for some, ever again.

Just across the border from El Paso, Texas, Death struts about performing his horrible magic tricks.  Countless women disappear.  Some have never returned.  Those that do are only recovered as mutilated pieces.  It is as if Death owns the town – and maybe he does.  He certainly seems to have some help from high places, officials and others who cover up, or even worse, ignore his tracks.  Fourteen-year-old Esmeralda Herrera, Seventeen-year-old Laura Berenice Remos Monárrez and twenty-year-old Claudia Ivette Conzález Banda are but three of Death’s victims who will never again get to tell their mothers, “I love you.”

Even today, these ever increasing numbers vary depending upon whom you talk to.  Some only count those who have had their lives brutally stripped from them.  Others include the ones who vanished and have never returned.   But their mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, friends and other family know the truth – because only emptiness echos where love and laughter once played.

Though the tide of new cases is “supposed” to be slowing, many unheard and forgotten mysteries linger unresolved, some of these more than fifteen years old.  Too many recovered bodies remain without names, their families without closure.  Does it matter whether the dead number 300, 400 or more?  Even in a natural disaster that number is staggering.  But these lives are not attributed to any hurricane, earthquake, flood, pandemic virus or even a building bombing.  The same applies for the thousands of women who have just vanished into thin air.  Who will speak for them?

How would you feel if your daughter, just disappeared?  What cold clawing horror would tear itself from inside your heart when she returned to you, in pieces?  All of that beautiful, vibrant life you nurtured, now just decaying bits of flesh and bone . . .  Then imagine your own government ignores your questions and pleas, and when they tell you to shut up, and you don’t . . .  In some cases, those who have questioned the government have been known to disappear.  This horror and travesty shouldn’t be happening in modern times.  Yet, it is.

Yet there is hope.  Because brave people keep the signal going, these silenced souls are finally being heard before the Inter-American Court on Human Rights.  Irma Monreal, Benita Monarrez and Josefina Gonazalez are finally that much closer to forcing the government to address and fix this femicide.  Perhaps soon they will be able to finally obtain justice for their beloved daughters: Esmerelda, Laura and Claudia.  Because of those who have continued to fight the unbalanced system, other mothers will be able to celebrate Mother’s Day the way it should be – with their daughters.

So you see, yes you can help.  Every little action can and does help.  Please start by visiting the links on the next page, spread the word AND THEN TRY TO DO SOMETHING MORE.  Write a letter to someone, either in office or perhaps try and reach out and touch the life of one of the mothers waiting in the darkness without hope.  Donate to a worthy cause like Equality Now – because even your change can be used to help them fight senseless death and corruption.  Send out fliers, make posters or just MAKE SOME USEFUL NOISE by passing this message on.  You are limited only by your imagination and drive.

This Mother’s Day, remember the mothers of Ciudad Juárez in your thoughts and prayers while you celebrate in your own homes.  Remember their daughters but not just as dried ink statistics on a dusty page.  Instead find them in the female faces around you; remember them as beautiful living souls snuffed out before their time, and give thanks for the loved ones in your life.

Don’t let the signal stop.

If you would like to read the latest information on the Court hearing and links about the mothers and daughters of Ciudad Juárez, please click here.

On behalf of the Global Team, we’d like to wish all of you a happy Mother’s Day.

Warm Regards,

Anne Barringer
Can’t Stop the Serenity
2009 Global Organizer

More Information:
www.mujeresdejuarez.org
Wikipedia – Female homicides in Ciudad Juárez
www.libertadlatina.org