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A review by heidisreads
If I Die in Juarez by Stella Pope Duarte
5.0
If I Die in Juarez by Stella Pope Duarte is a fictional representation of actual ways people of Ciudad Juarez are affected by drug cartels and violence. People are coming to the city to find work in the maquiladoras – factories – and help their families survive. But in Ciudad Juarez, they are fighting to stay alive in another way.
If I Die in Juarez is told through the eyes of three girls, Evita, Petra and Mayela. Each of the girls’ situations differs. One struggles to care for her family and the others are separated from family working in the dangerous maquiladoras or living on the streets. Fear envelopes the girls’ lives. They are afraid.
And so will you when you read this book. If I Die in Juarez is raw and difficult to read. The situations are realistically frightening.
When I sat down to lunch with Stella Pope Duarte, I told her I was full of fear as I read the book. She told me it was a hard book to write because she was frightened as she wrote it. Duarte remembered trembling as she heard the true stories of the people in Ciudad Juarez. But, she said, the stories needed to be told. And who better to tell them than the girls themselves.
If I Die in Juarez is told through the eyes of three girls, Evita, Petra and Mayela. Each of the girls’ situations differs. One struggles to care for her family and the others are separated from family working in the dangerous maquiladoras or living on the streets. Fear envelopes the girls’ lives. They are afraid.
And so will you when you read this book. If I Die in Juarez is raw and difficult to read. The situations are realistically frightening.
When I sat down to lunch with Stella Pope Duarte, I told her I was full of fear as I read the book. She told me it was a hard book to write because she was frightened as she wrote it. Duarte remembered trembling as she heard the true stories of the people in Ciudad Juarez. But, she said, the stories needed to be told. And who better to tell them than the girls themselves.