Décimas Para Las Almas Con Alas / Décimas For Souls With Wings

                                  I

for Monica Alanís and
all the women of Juárez

So many daughters disappeared 

After working long shifts at night

At las malquiladoras rife

With innocents to commandeer 

Into a hell of hate and fear

Kidnap, rape and torture untold

Unpunished monsters remain bold

Hunt their prey with impunity

While parents suffer the cruelty

Of their children's bodies grown cold

© Odilia Galván Rodríguez, 2012

By artist: Erin Currier

Mónica Janet Alanís, student of the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez

who "disappeared"  from the university three years ago and has not been

seen since.  Her father Ricardo Alanís, is the coordinator of the Comité de 

Madres y Familiares con Hijas Desaparecidas de Ciudad Juárez, (Committee of

Mothers and Family Members of Daughters Disappeared from the City of Juárez.) 


Since 1993, hundreds of women have been murdered in the desert city of Ciudad Juárez in Mexico. 
There is no clear motive for the killings and the police seem reluctant to investigate. There is no 
accurate number of victims.  The City's newspaper El Diario puts the figure at 878 women killed 
between 1993 and 2010, but other community members say they number in the thousands.  Parents 
and supporters of the women of Juárez ask what is really going on and why can't these atrocious 
crimes be solved and stopped.  


I offer these poems in homage to the disappeared and murdered women, for their parents and loved 
ones who suffer not knowing if their child is alive or dead, or what in reality, did happen to them and why.  

note: This is my first poem for National Poetry Month -  NaPoWriMo 2012, 30 poems in 30 days.