Monday, May 8 – Janey Annual Workshop: Fabiola de Lachica Huerta
Please join us on Monday, May 8, 2017, 12-2 pm, for our session of the 2016-17 Janey Annual Workshop.
Fabiola de Lachica (Ph.D. Student in Sociology) will present her dissertation proposal draft “Responding to Violence within a Historical Context of Urban Poverty: Exploring Villas de Salvarcar Massacre as a Disruptive Event within the War on Drugs”. Guillermina Altomonte (Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology) will be commenting.
The Janey Workshop takes place at 80 5th Ave, Room G 529.
Abstract:
Ciudad Juárez in Mexico has been in the international spotlight for a few decades, particularly for its high degrees of violence. Furthermore, the city is also known for its high poverty rates, precarious labor conditions, elevated levels of drug consumption, and other conditions associated with urban poverty. This project focuses on a particular milestone for the city, the Villas de Salvarcar massacre in January 2010. This massacre occurred during the so-called “War on Drugs” (2006-2012) in Mexico in which more than 25,757 people had been killed from 2007 to 2010. The coldblooded murder of teenagers at a birthday unfolded in a particular way mobilizing a diversity of actors – victims, activists, local and federal government, government, local and international NGOs. This dissertation will combine qualitative methods- in-depth interviews, archival work and discourse analysis- to explore what are the conditions of possibility and how do they relate to the buildup of Villas de Salvarcar massacre as an event? In other words, why did a massacre like this one, similar to other phenomena that happened in a context of widespread violence, become a watershed event? And, how did the sequence of occurrences of Villas de Salvarcar massacre allow the emergence of different discourses of violence and narratives of the city? To study these main questions, this research will explore in detail three empirical questions: 1) What is the role of actors who respond to the massacre –victims, NGOs, local and federal governments, and journalists – in the definition of Villas de Salvarcar massacre as an event? 2) How are the different narratives of the city -organization, violence, conditions of urban poverty- negotiated among actors who respond to Villas de Salvarcar massacre? 3) How is Ciudad Juárez portrayed after the massacre and during the War on Drugs? The aim of this project is to analyze Villas de Salvarcar massacre as a paradigmatic case of responses to violence. In its sequence of occurrences, this event, changed discourses, forms of organization, the role of actors, and the image of a city.