In the past two decades there has been a significant increase in deaths of young women in Juarez, Mexico. In 1994 the North American Free Trade Agreement was passed and many U.S. companies such as General Electric and DuPont opened maquiladoras in border towns such as Juarez. These border towns were convenient locations because of their close proximity to the U.S. and the abundance of cheap labor. However, with the introduction of these U.S. owned plants there has been an incredible increase in violence towards women.

Women have been called to the production line and a cultural revolution has taken place. Now women can work full-time for "$55 for a 45 hour workweek". (Portillo) However, this new independence for women through the maquila economy "has exacerbated the gender tensions of border-town culture". (Nathan, 5) Still, this new opportunity has not really furthered the rights of women in the border towns and instead has made them targets of hate-crime violence. The only reason they are chosen over men is because patriarchal society has made them "more exploitable", because women are taught to be obedient and not question authority. (Nathan, 2)

These new opportunities have inadvertantly lead to the deaths of many women. Before the first maquiladora opened there were only three women a year murdered in Juarez, in the very beginning of the opening and running of plants the number when to three a month. Gender relations are changing rapidly in Juarez and it seems that women are being targeted for their new found financial independence. As feminist organizer Chavez states: "Men are no longer king of the home" and women are being raped and killed for it.

From 1993 to 2005 approximately "470" women have fallen victim to femicide in Juarez. (Valdez, prologue) Femicide according to Diana Russell "is the killing of females by males because they are females." (Russell, 3) Femicide is a type of hate crime and for the women of Juarez it is punishment for the independence which was given to them. Femicide, "like rape, is a form of terrorism that functions to define gender lines, to enact and bolster male dominance, and to render women chronically and profoundly unsafe." (Russell, 177) Thus while men began to feel castrated, by the employment of women over them, they felt the need to regain domination through violence and as I will show, through visual and textual discourse.