City of Missing Women

From the series Juarez, City of Missing Women

There is a saying in the area that, if you want to find Juarez, located just across the border from El Paso, Texas, just follow the crosses. And there are a lot of them. Over 400 women (Amnesty International and Mexican government differ in numbers) have been murdered in Juarez since 1993, and hundreds more women have disappeared. Most of them fit a similar profile — young women who came from other parts of the country to work in the maquiladoras, the factories on the border that take advantage of Mexico’s cheap labor to produce goods for U.S. and international companies. Many of the women disappeared on their way to or from work, perhaps while waiting for the buses that take them between the maquiladoras and the shantytowns on the outskirts of town in the late-night or predawn hours.

Timothy Fadek, photographer