Roberto Bolaño\u27s 2666: Giving Voice to Las Muertas de Juárez

My talk will present the testimonial value of Roberto Bolaño’s portrayal of Ciudad Juárez’s feminicides in 2666. With the help of a report published by Amnesty International in 2003, and several news articles published by Mexican and American newspapers, I will reconstruct the history of Juárez’s feminicides as it was known by 2004, when 2666 first came out. My aim is to highlight the discrepancies between the information presented by journalists, activistsand relatives of the dead women, and the “official” account of the events presented by the local police and politicians, who kept on denying that the killings were a social problem. I will show how Bolaño not only delivers an acute picture of this tension between the defenders of the victims and thegovernment,but also exposes how the state refused to protect the low-class women of Cuidad Juárez. And finally, I will demonstrate how in writing about an issue that was publicly denied by the authorities, Bolaño’s 2666 gives voice to the women of Juárez, challenges official historiography and becomes a subversive vehicle for the memory of the people