the way she spoke
An Audible Original
By: Isaac Gomez / Narrated By: Kate del Castillo
Length: 1 hr and 8 mins
Raw and visceral, a one-woman show to be remembered
the way she spoke tells it true when it says that if you grow up in a Border town, you grow up with a foot in each country. I hail from El Paso, Texas, and it seems like half my awareness as I was growing was in Juárez, Mexico. Hey, my abuelita and abuelito lived there. That’s where my cousins were (tho’ I GRIEVously disliked a few of them); that’s where my Christmas Eves were spent; that’s where my uncle was a cop—and boy does he have some stories. And hey: My sister worked as a student engineer at a maquiladora there, and she heard these things firsthand.
So I’ve been hearing about the murders and mutilations of girls and young women for years now. YEARS. It doesn’t stop. There’ve been theories (It’s the cops! It’s the cartels! It’s gangs!), but mostly there’s been a complete and utter lack of action, a lack of interest.
And at a certain point, other than when a particularly grisly set of remains, a particularly mutilated body, was found, they all just blended into each other, with each woman becoming a statistic, part of the ever-growing number. Just add ‘er to the list.
So Isaac Gomez’s play does the almost-impossible by bringing the lives of the women up front, of their terror during the day, their tragedy during the night. Not only that, it highlights just how hard it is to be a woman in such a society. We think the times the #MeToo movement has brought to light were bad? Heck, they’re still very much an everyday occurrence/experience for women in Juárez. The leering, the catcalls, the groping.
The violence.
The murder.
Kate del Castillo does a fantastic job, bringing every bit of her rather extraordinary acting chops to play as she tells this story of going to Juárez to conduct interviews, to meet family members, to speak with officials. It’s tragic, and it’s poignant, and her gruff voice carries off a man’s voice even as it breaks with sorrow, listing all the other women and girls who’ve been found murdered, ostensibly NOT of the Juárez Murders. Just the plain and simple violence and horror that is life in that city.
There’s a lot of profanity; there are very graphic details of murder and mutilation, so if you’re easily offended, or faint of heart, perhaps you’d do better listening to a less true-to-life telling, one with a far less emotional impact. Because the way she spoke is a total slug to the gut, where threats of rape and torture are things that are casually hurled against women as they walk by. Rape is typical. Murder happens.
1 hour and 8 minutes. And nary a shred of justice to be found.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.