Women’s right activist’s death brings communities together

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EL PASO – Esther Chavez Cano was no bigger than many of women and children she stood up for. “Esther, I remember as being short, smaller than most of us in this room, but oh, she was so powerful,” said UTEP professor Kathy Staudt. Cano’s small, unassuming stature was misleading. She was relentless in her efforts, and her voice, which spoke for the scores of women who were abducted, raped and brutally murdered out in the desert shanties of Cd. Juarez, Mexico, was heard around the world.

Esther Chávez Cano: An Army of One

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EL PASO — She stood five feet two inches tall in her sensible heels. With her short-cropped blonde bob and piercing blue eyes behind rounded spectacles, Esther Cano looked more like a school librarian than a scrappy fighter for human rights for women in crime-plagued Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. But Cano, who died of cancer on Christmas Day at age 75, could definitely deliver a mighty wallop and often did, taking aim at political indifference and the lack of legal and police protection for women victims of violence in Mexico. Some who gathered in El Paso recently to celebrate Cano’s life and activism remember her as, “an army of one.”

“She said she was not a saint or Mother Teresa but just a human-being fighting for justice,” said niece Marta Strobach. The diminutive “güera,” or blonde, as some friends affectionately call Cano, was largely responsible for bringing international media attention to the previously ignored murders of hundreds of women and girls in the scrappy border town of 2 million residents, across the Rio Grande from El Paso, TX.

“Amor por Juárez” será el grito de guerra de los juarenses

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CIUDAD JUÁREZ — Después de un año de vivir con miedo y un caos de violencia sin tregua ni límites, el alcalde de esta ciudad, José Reyes Ferriz, anunció el comienzo de una nueva etapa donde se espera recuperar la paz y la libertad secuestrada a través de un programa llamado  “Amor por Juárez”. Con este nuevo movimiento social creado por el gobierno municipal de la ciudad se espera unir y exhortar a la población local para comenzar una nueva etapa de paz y tranquilidad en la ciudad fronteriza, dijo Reyes Ferriz. “Vamos a presumirle al mundo que ante la adversidad los juarenses sacamos la casta, que somos una sociedad decidida a recuperar la paz y la libertad”, dijo Reyes Ferriz. El alcalde también dio las gracias a las fuerzas armadas por hacer suya la causa de los juarenses y a José Reyes Baeza, Gobernador del Estado de Chihuahua por estar en todo momento presente ante la crisis de violencia e inseguridad. “Amor por Juárez es un movimiento social que nos proyecta como una sociedad luchadora e indomable.