International Caravan for Justice to Visit UNC Asheville;
Group Raising Awareness About Women Murdered Along U.S./Mexico Border
RESCHEDULED FOR 9 A.M. MONDAY, OCT. 25 -- The "International Caravan for Justice in Juarez and Chihuahua,
Mexico" which is traveling across the U.S., will make a stop at UNC
Asheville at 7 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 24, at Highsmith University Union. The
caravan is hoping to raise awareness about women who have disappeared and
been murdered along the U.S./Mexico border. The event is free and open to
the public.
The caravan will include testimonials by Soledad Aguilar, whose
daughter was murdered in 1995, and Macrina Cardenas de Alarcon,
Legislative Coordinator of the Mexico Solidarity Network in Washington,
D.C.
According to the Washington Post, the brutal slayings of women and
girls began in the Mexican border towns of Juarez and Chihuahua in the
early 1990's. Women have been found raped and strangled, crushed or
mutilated. Estimates put the number of murdered women between 300 and 400.
According to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
Against Women, the investigation of the murders and disappearances has
been tempered by the slowness in investigating the disappearances,
falsification of evidence, harassment of the victim's families and the use
of torture to obtain confessions. The caravan is demanding action by
authorities on both sides of the border.
In conjunction with the caravan, UNC Asheville's Multicultural Student
Programs will host two screenings of the documentary "Senorita
Extraviada /*Missing Young Woman*," a film about the murders in
Juarez, Mexico. The first screening is at 5 p.m., Monday, Oct. 11, in
UNC Asheville's Humanities Lecture Hall. The second
screening is at 7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 21, in UNC Asheville's Highsmith
Union room 224. A question and answer session led by faculty and students
will follow each screening.
UNC Asheville sponsors include Amnesty International student club, EPEC
student club, Foreign Languages Department, HOLA student club, Humanities
Program, International Studies, Multicultural Student Affairs,
Multicultural Student Programs, United Methodist Campus Ministry and Women’s
Studies. Other sponsors include International Link and Warren Wilson
College's Minister of Students.
For more information, call Alice Weldon, UNC Asheville associate
professor of foreign languages, at 828/251-6285.
Media Contacts:
- Dr. Alice Weldon, UNCA Associate Professor of
Foreign Languages, 828/251-6285
- Jill Yarnall, UNCA Public Information Assistant Director,
828/251-6526
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