Desert Blood: The Juárez Murders

Ivon wakes up in the back of Father Francis’s car. Ximena says they are bringing her to her mother’s house so she can shower and change. Ivon wants to find out who killed Cecilia, but Ximena believes it is not only “a dead-end street” (55) but also dangerous. When she begins discussing “Plan B” for Ivon to adopt a baby, Ivon calls her “callous” (55). Ximena objects: she is upset about Cecilia but “know[s] what kind of sick fucks we’re dealing with” (55). Ivon asks for a cigarette despite having not smoked for a year.

As they drive through Juárez, Ximena finds a paper she had forgotten about in her purse. Cecilia’s cousin gave it to her, saying Cecilia found it on her machine; when her grandmother showed it to the police, they “blew it off” (56) as a prank. Written in blue ink is a pentagram inside a circle and a heading, “Richy’s Diary. Volume 3, No. 1” (56). Ivon finds the words “trematode” and “You’re next!” along with the URL for a pornography website. Father Francis is horrified: the only person he has heard use the word “trematode” is Richard Ramírez, “the Night Stalker” of El Paso, who received 19 life sentences for committing 19 murders. 

The trio crosses the border into the United States.

At Ivon’s mother Lydia’s house, Father Francis agrees that they should “do something about Cecilia” (59), but Ximena’s preferred method is to “stay out of it to protect my family” (60). She and Father Francis drive away, and Ivon approaches her mother, who is in her garden.

Lydia thinks Ivon looks like her father in her shirt and with her short haircut. Ivon confesses that she stayed at Grandma Maggie’s the previous night; her mother responds that her business must be “more important than your own family” (61). Ivon considers calling Brigit but “couldn’t handle Brigit’s disappointment on top of her own” (62).

Ivon tells her mother that she and Brigit were trying to adopt a baby but that “it didn’t work out” (63). Irene comes home for lunch, and Lydia complains Irene had come home smelling like beer the night before. She worries they will end up alcoholics like their late father.

Irene asks Ivon whether they met Cecilia; Ivon again says it did not work out. Irene suggests what Ximena does is illegal, but Ivon believes she is “helping out those poor women in Juárez” (64). When Ivon says she wants to go home to Los Angeles, Irene insists she take her to the fair first.

Lydia tells Irene she hopes she gains nicer friends at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), and Irene argues that her friends are not bad just because they have tattoos. When Ivon says she thought Irene was applying to schools in California, their mother grows angry. She believes sending Ivon to a college in Iowa was the “[w]orst mistake we ever made” (65). She is upset that Ivon is “one of those women libbers” (65), and she does not want Irene to turn out the same way. Irene insists she wants to go to California because UTEP does not have a law school.

Ivon insists that her mother be honest about her thoughts on Ivon and Brigit’s adoption. Lydia complains she is “embarrass[ing] me in front of the whole family” and that she has “turned into a marimacha,” or lesbian (66). She also blames Ivon for her father’s alcoholism. When Irene defends Ivon, Lydia slaps her. Ivon and Irene leave together, with their mother shouting homophobic insults as they leave.

Outside, Ivon is surprised Irene is driving “Mostaza,” their father’s 1978 yellow El Camino. As they climb into the car, Irene thinks about how she had her first sexual experience in that car. Irene and Ivon are shaken after the confrontation with their mother. Ivon wants to go to the supermarket for beer and groceries, and Irene says she is moving away even if she does not get into Saint Ignatius. 

At the store, Irene goes for water and coffee while Ivon shops for groceries. As she waits at the checkout line, she is approached by Raquel, whom she has not seen since she left El Paso eight years ago. Raquel says she is married and that her husband wanted to buy a condo in El Paso; however, Raquel prefers living on the other side of the border and has renovated her mother’s house. Ivon notices she is not wearing a wedding band.

Ivon asks after Raquel’s nieces, the daughters of her brother Gabriel, who frequently “threatened to beat her up if she didn’t leave his sister alone” (71). Raquel’s refusal “to leave the closet because of the fear that her brother would reject her and not allow her to come near his daughters” (72) had come between her and Ivon. In response to Ivon’s questions, Raquel tells her that she is still involved in Frontelingua, Gabriel’s language school. 

Irene joins them, and Raquel introduces herself as Ivon’s friend. When Irene asks if she was her girlfriend, Raquel insists she was just her friend. Irene is excited when Raquel says she is going to the fair that night and asks Ivon to take her. Raquel says she will get them in for free, and Ivon and Raquel plan to meet at nine o’clock.

In the car, Irene asks Ivon about her relationship with Raquel, but Ivon is reticent. Ivon wants to call Brigit and is frustrated that she left her cell phone in Father Francis’s car. They plan for Irene to come over when she gets off work at five-thirty. At Grandma Maggie’s house, they see Ximena’s car in the driveway. Irene wants to know what happened to Cecilia, but Ivon will not tell her.

In Grandma Maggie’s house, Ximena is watching “Xena” on the couch. She had put Ivon’s cell phone in the bedroom after turning it off because Brigit kept calling. Ivon spends nearly an hour in the shower and drinks several beers. Afterward, Ivon tells Ximena about her argument with her mother and her encounter with Raquel. She does not believe Raquel is actually married.

Ximena has arranged for “Plan B” of the adoption and wants to take Ivon to visit Elsa, who has a young son named Jorgito. Ivon, however, is “traumatized” because Cecilia “was probably getting killed while we were waiting for her outside the factory” (79). When she tells Ximena that she does not want to adopt anymore, Ximena reveals that Brigit called on the house line and that Ximena already told her about Elsa.

Brigit calls Ivon on her cell phone, and Ivon tells her about the murders and that Cecilia has been killed. Ivon learns that Elsa is dying of ovarian cancer and wants someone to take care of her three-year-old son. Brigit and Ivon discuss it and decide they cannot leave Jorgito in Juárez to a life of drugs, begging, or child prostitution. They decide to set up his room in the guest room.

On the news, Bob Russell from the FBI suggests the girls have been killed by a serial killer from El Paso and that “the victims are leading loose lives” (85). Ivon is disgusted that the victims are being blamed. She considers calling Irene to tell her she will be unable to go to the fair because she is visiting Elsa but figures Irene will “find out soon enough” (85).

Ximena and Ivon visit Elsa, who lives in the back of a small restaurant. Elsa’s grandmother is cooking at the stove; she complains that Elsa watches television all day and is supposed to be taking care of her. Ximena and Ivon walk through the dilapidated building toward Elsa’s living quarters. Jorgito sits watching television while Elsa sleeps in a pile of clothes.

Ivon wonders why Jorgito is wearing a knit cap. When Elsa forces him to remove it, Ivon sees he has severe bruises and poor nutrition has left him with little hair. Elsa says he hits his head against the wall when she goes to the doctor but admits that her grandmother hits him.

Ivon gives Jorgito a toy truck she bought at the gas station. When he kisses her cheek, she becomes tearful. She is heartbroken when he trudges into the dark hallway toward the grandmother who beats him, and she realizes that even at three years old, he is a “survivor” (89).

Elsa says Jorgito is her “reason for living” (90) and that she cannot leave him with her grandmother. When asked about the father, she insists she never had sex and that a pregnancy test at the factory told her she was pregnant. When Ivon questions Ximena’s suggestion that Elsa was raped at the interview, Ximena tells her women at factories are often forced to receive birth control shots and show their sanitary napkins. 

Elsa explains that she went to an interview at a factory and was given a pregnancy test that involved a pelvic exam. She was instructed to come back a week later, at which time a needle was inserted inside her and she was forced to lie with her legs in the air for 15 minutes. Ivon deduces that Elsa was inseminated. 

Elsa says that when she returned in six weeks and learned she was pregnant, she did not get the job. She heard from another woman that the doctor was conducting contraceptive experiments. Ivon and Ximena explain that the doctor must have inseminated Elsa to determine whether his contraceptive worked. 

Ivon promises to take Jorgito if Elsa tells them where this happened. Elsa reveals it was at something called “the ETC plant” and that the doctor was Dr. Amen—the doctor Ivon read about on the plane (93).