juarez
Many moons ago, I created a series of artwork about one weekend where three of Mexico's top brass musicians were slayed in response to having created ballads that rival gangs promoted. That same weekend, a grenade was thrown onstage in the Vida Divina bar, killing audience members and musicians. All with the ignored Juarez murders of women as a backdrop. They are large, colorful and emotive pieces.
A trumpet player was found dead with his hands and feet bound and a nylon bag over his head in southern Mexico, the third murder of a musician in Mexico in less than a week. Jose Luis Aquino, 33, played for 14 years with Los Conde, which was founded in Tututepec, Oaxaca, and later moved to the resort town of Puerto Escondido.
At the time of the creation of this collage, (2008) there were 178 missing women in the area of Juarez.
The crosses in the colourful mural above, symbolize each victim. In 2016, there had been over 400 women reported missing or dead. I used the images of Jennifer Lopez as she is Latino and not Mexican to further illustrate the invisibility of migrant workers.
