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Ciudad Juárez
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Ciudad Juárez, also known as just Juárez and formerly known as El Paso del Norte, is a city and seat of the municipality of Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Juárez has an estimated population of 1.5 million people. It stands on the Rio Grande (Río Bravo del Norte), across the U.S. border from El Paso, Texas. El Paso and Ciudad Juárez comprise one of the largest binational metropolitan areas in the world with a combined population of 2.5 million people.
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Encyclopedia
Ciudad Juárez, also known as just Juárez and formerly known as El Paso del Norte, is a city and seat of the municipality of Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Juárez has an estimated population of 1.5 million people. It stands on the Rio Grande (Río Bravo del Norte), across the U.S. border from El Paso, Texas. El Paso and Ciudad Juárez comprise one of the largest binational metropolitan areas in the world with a combined population of 2.5 million people. In fact, Ciudad Juárez is one the fastest growing cities in the world. For instance, a few years ago, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas published that in Ciudad Juárez “the average annual growth over the 10-year period [1990-2000] was 5.3 percent. Juárez experienced much higher population growth than the state of Chihuahua and than Mexico as a whole.” In 2000, the United Nations reported that the world's population was growing at a rate of 1.14%.
More than 60,000 people cross the Juárez-El Paso border every day making it a major port of entry and transportation for all of central northern Mexico. The city has a growing industrial center which is made up in large part by the more than 300 maquiladoras (assembly plants) located in and around the city. According to a 2007 The New York Times article, Ciudad Juárez “is now absorbing more new industrial real estate space than any other North American city.” In 2008, Ciudad Juárez was designated as “The City of the Future” by the prestigious magazine “Foreign Direct Investment” published by the influential “Financial Times group.”. However, the city is also a site of widespread poverty and violence, including an infamous series of unsolved murders of female factory workers. The violence generated by the war of the drug cartels for control of drug routes translated into some 6,000 killings in 2008. More than 1,600 of them occurred in Juarez, three times more than the most murderous city in the United States. Through February 2009, the body count in Juarez is 400.
According to the prestigious magazine América Economía, this border metropolis has always been ranked as one of the best major cities to do business in Latin America. The binational metropolitan area of Ciudad Juárez-El Paso is "ranked 16th in trade among the largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States."
The New York Times has commented on the exquisite restaurants of Ciudad Juárez, describing them as places that offer “the old-school bon-vivant elegance of Mexico as well as some excellent culinary innovation.”
History
Ciudad Juárez was founded as El Paso del Norte ("North Pass") in 1659 by Spanish explorers, seeking a route through the southern Rocky Mountains. The Mission of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe was one of the first permanent developments in the area. The wood for the bridge across the Rio Grande first came from Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the 1700s. The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo established the Rio Grande as the border between Mexico and the United States, separating the settlements on the north bank of the river from the rest of the town. The portion of the city allotted to the United States would later become El Paso, Texas. Ciudad Juárez and El Paso are one of the 14 pairs of Cross-border town naming along the U.S.–Mexico border. During the French intervention in Mexico (1862–1867), El Paso del Norte served as a temporary stop for Benito Juárez's republican forces until he established his government-in-exile in Chihuahua. In 1888, El Paso del Norte was renamed in honor of Juárez.
Ciudad Juárez again served as the country's provisional capital during the initial phase of the Mexican Revolution, when forces loyal to opposition candidate Francisco I. Madero, led by Pancho Villa, seized the city on 20 November 1910. The scene of intense fighting for a decade, Juárez recovered during the US Prohibition era (1919–33) as an entertainment center. Juárez continued to attract tourists from the southwest USA during the 1940s and 1950s, with its bars, nightclubs, brothels, bullfighting, and shopping.
Juárez has grown substantially in recent decades due to a large influx of people rapidly moving into the city in search of jobs with the maquiladoras. Now, more technological firms have been attracted like the largest Delphi Corporation Technical Center in the Western Hemisphere, which is located in Ciudad Juárez and employs more than 2,000 engineers. Large slum housing communities called colonias have become extensive.
Juárez has gained further notoriety because of violence and as a major center of narcotics trafficking linked to the powerful Juárez Cartel, and for more than 1000 unsolved murders of young women since 1993. Unfortunately, because of widely alleged police complicity (and perhaps even participation on the part of police and government officials and local elites), the serial murders continue and most of them remain "unsolved" despite the years that have gone by, though homicides have dropped a bit since 2004 despite the increase of population. As a result of the murders, Juárez (along with the capital of the state, Chihuahua, Chih.) has become a center for protest against sexual violence throughout Mexico. Meanwhile, many continue working to maintain a positive image of Ciudad Juárez. Songs 'Juarez' by the music artist Tori Amos and 'Invalid Litter Dept.' by At the Drive-In refer to Ciudad Juárez and the murders of women therein. A giant Mexican flag, banderas monumentales, was erected in Chamizal Park on June 26, 1997.
Demographics
The average annual growth in population over the 10-year period [1990-2000] was 5.3%. According to the last population census in 2005, the city had 1,301,452 inhabitants, while the municipality had 1,313,338 inhabitants. During the last decades the city has received immigrants from interior Mexico, some figures state that 32% of the city's population originated outside the state of Chihuahua, mainly from the states of Durango (9.9%), Coahuila (6.3%), Veracruz (3.7%) and Zacatecas (3.5%), as well as from Mexico City (1.7%). Though most immigrants are Mexican, some immigrants also come from Central American countries, such as Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
Education
According to the latest estimates, literacy rate in the city is among the highest of the country: 97.3% of people above 15 years old are able to read and write. Juárez has three public and two private universities. The Instituto Tecnológico de Ciudad Juárez (ITCJ), founded in 1964, became the first public institution of higher education in the city. The Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez (UACJ), founded in 1968, is the largest university in the city and has been ranked among the best universities of the country. It has several locations inside of the city like the Faculty of Biomedicine, the Social Sciences Center, the Arts and Engineering Center and spaces for Fine Arts and Sports. This latter service is considered among the best because it recluses nearly 30,000 practicipants in sports like swimming, racquetball, basketball and gymnastics and arts like Classical Ballet, Drama, Modern Dance, Hawaiian and Polynesian Dances, Folkloric Dances, Music and Flamenco. The Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of the Autonomous University of Chihuahua (Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua, UACH) is located in the city. The local campuses of the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and the Autonomous University of Durango (UAD) are private universities. The Monterrey Institute of Technology opened its campus in 1983 and it is preferred among the upper and middle classes of the city. It is ranked as "third best" among other campuses of the institution, after the Garza Sada campus in Monterrey and the Santa Fe campus in Mexico City.
Overall, the city offers a wide range of schools for every type of income and need. The city is widely recognized for its excellence in education, especially the one offered by the private sector. The main institutions in Ciudad Juárez are the Instituto Latinoamericano, a Catholic school directed from Spain, one of the colleges managed by the company founded by Spanish mystic Teresa de Avila, by direct order of the Pope to revert the effects of Protestantism in Spain; The Colegio Iberoamericano, The Middle School and High School of the ITESM, the Teresa de Avila, the Instituto Mexico. Despite this, many people choose to study in the neighbor city of El Paso.
Sport
Like in most of Mexico, soccer is the most popular sport in Juárez. The local soccer team is Indios de Ciudad Juárez. Baseball, basketball, tennis and American football are also popular, most of these being practiced in high schools and universities. A soccer team named Los Indios resides in this city and was just recently promoted to the Primera Division (Main division) for the 2008 season. The Indios rent the stadium Estadio Olímpico Benito Juárez. Juárez has 2 very large stadiums: Estadio Olímpico Benito Juárez and Estadio 20 de Noviembre. Mountain biking is also popular, with the Chupacabras 100 km race held annually in Juárez.
Very near the Cordova international bridge is a large combination bmx and skatepark, Parque Extremo. This park features a concrete area with multiple ramps, rails, boxes, etc, and a dirt area with ramps and tracks for bmx riding. It is much larger than the skate parks in nearby cities El Paso, Texas, and Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Cd. Juárez served as the host of the CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament in 2008.
Broadcasting and media
There are 16 over the air TV channel signals in the city:
In addition, there are three different paid television signals available, as well as 24 radio station signals in AM and 21 in FM.
Newspapers
Juárez has four local newspapers: El Diario, El Norte, El Mexicano, and El PM El Puente Libre.
In film and other media
- Brokeback Mountain (2005) shows Jake Gyllenhaal's character Jack Twist going down to Mexico to see a male prostitute. The sign on the road reads "Juarez"
- The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
- Man on Fire (2004)
- The Virgin of Juarez (2006)
- Bordertown (2007) (The film was not actually filmed in Juárez).
- In a version of Woody Guthrie's Cocaine Blues performed by Johnny Cash, the song states that, "they overtook me down in Juárez, Mexico."
- Bob Dylan's song Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues opens with "When you're lost in the rain in Juárez..." and goes on to describe a visit to a Juarez house of prostitution.
- Juárez was where the first divorce for Marilyn Monroe occurred.
- Many Hollywood stars went there during prohibition and afterward, as vividly described in the Tom Russell song "When Sinatra Played Juarez."
- In the 2000 film Amores Perros, Octavio plans to run away to Ciudad Juárez with Susana.
- In the single "Cd. Juárez" by Mexican singer María Barracuda.
- In the single "Ciudad De Bajas Pasiones" by Spanish singer Enrique Bunbury.
- "Juárez" on the album To Venus and Back by Tori Amos makes reference to homicides committed on the border of Mexico and the United States, near Ciudad Juárez.
- The At the Drive-In music video for "Invalid Litter Dept." features articles and captions about the hundreds of unsolved homicides and rapes in Juárez.
- In the movie Glory Road (2005) the members of the basketball team sneak out of their dorms in University of Texas El Paso and go to Bar/Restaurant in Juarez.
- Cormac McCarthy's novel Cities of the Plain.
- Two novels by Chilean-born novelist Roberto Bolaño, The Savage Detectives and 2666, take place in Juárez, named Santa Teresa in the novels.
- Juárez was featured as the setting of a Mexican rebellion in the video game Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2.
- The final portion of the video game Call of Juarez takes place in the desert outside of the city sometime between the American Old West era of 1865 through 1890.
- Senorita Extraviada - Lourdes Portillo, 2001
- In the television show Mad Men one of the characters brings weed from there in the episode "The Hobo Code." Episode 8.
Places of interest
- Antigua Presidencia Municipal: (Old City Hall) Built in the 19th century, using volcanic materials and adobe, with originally fine woods. Site to many historic events.
- Mision de Guadalupe: Oldest standing building in Juarez, from the 17th century. Continuously used by the catholic church.
- Auditorio civico Benito Juárez: The local theater for the arts.
- Auditorio Municipal: The new state of the art theater built behind the UACJ Med School.
- Zona Pronaf: Bars, museums, shops, restaurants, entertainment. In the Zona Pronaf, one can find bars such as La Mulata, Don Quintin, San Martin, The News, Ole Bar Chamucos, among others.
- Estadio Olímpico Benito Juárez: Home of the local soccer team Los Indios (The Indians).
- Avenida Juárez; Bars and shops.
- Parque Chamizal: Green area of the city, that consist of a park of over with jogging trails, swings and recreational areas, which was once shared by El Paso and Juárez, was given back to Mexico By J.F.K back in the 60's.
- Museo del Concorde: A place to see original parts of the airliner.
- Centro Cívico Paso del Norte (Opened on December 2006 and has been home of the Festival Internacional Chihuahua since).
- Misiones, Galerias Tec, Plaza Juárez and Rio Grande shopping malls.
- Parque Central: (Central Park) A family-oriented recreational area located south of the US-Mexico border.
- Parque Xtremo: The largest extreme park in Latin America.
- Cibeles: Convention Center
- The Ciudad Juárez México Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Crime
Drug cartel violence
Recent violence among rival drug cartels has resulted in almost half of Mexico's 8330 drug related murders reported to have taken place since January 2007; Juarez now has by far the highest murder rate in Mexico. Recent murders in the city have grown not only in numbers, but also in barbarity. In late 2008, one murder victim was found near a school hanging from a fence with a pig's mask on his face, and another one was found beheaded hanging from a bridge in one of the busier streets of the city. Journalist Charles Bowden, in an August 2008 GQ article, wrote that multiple factors, including drug violence, government corruption, and poverty have unleashed a disordered violence that now permeates the city.
In January 2004, Ciudad Juarez police unearthed a mass grave containing 12 bodies in a backyard.
Mexican investigators found 19 more bodies buried in the backyard of a house in Ciudad Juarez, increasing the tally of corpses found there to 36, officials said March 15 2008. Federal agents began digging in the yard on March 1 2008, initially finding six dismembered bodies. Ciudad Juárez has been plagued by violence as Mexico's crackdown on powerful drug cartels stokes turf wars among traffickers who have been linked to thousands of killings in the years 2006, 2007 and 2008.
The body count in Mexico stands at 5,400 slayings in 2008, more than double the 2,477 reported in 2007, officials said, with over 1400 in Ciudad Juárez alone.
The population of Ciudad Juarez had to change their daily routine and many try to stay home in the evening hours. Public life is almost paralyzed out of fear of being kidnapped or hit by a stray bullet. On 20 February 2009, the U.S. State Department announced in an updated travel alert that "Mexican authorities report that more than 1,800 people have been killed in the city since January 2008."
After being widely considered the most violent city in Mexico, "Nearly 2,000 Mexican soldiers and armed federal police poured into the border town of Ciudad Juarez" in late February. This move by the military came after it was reported that "250 people were killed there by hitmen fighting for lucrative smuggling routes" in the city.
Female sexual homicides
Over the past 10 years Juárez has seen over 400 women fall victims to sexual homicides, their bodies often dumped in ditches or vacant lots. In addition, grassroots organizations in the region report that 40 remain missing. Despite pressure to catch the killers and a roundup of some suspects, few believe the true culprits have been found. A 2007 book called The Daughters of Juarez, by Teresa Rodriguez, implicates high-level police and prominent Juárez citizens in the crimes. This topic is also discussed in the 2006 book "The Harvest of Women" by journalist Diana Washington Valdez, as well as in the novel 2666 by Roberto Bolaño, in which Ciudad Juarez is veiled as Santa Teresa.
The sheer number of murders overwhelmed the local authorities which led to the construction of a US$6-million, high-tech laboratory complex that is a legacy of those killings. After an outcry over what was widely viewed as a slipshod investigation, international donors chipped in to help the State of Chihuahua build an unusually well-equipped forensics operation. It boasts a ballistics lab, chemical and genetic testing, DNA analysis and a morgue capable of storing nearly 100 bodies. But the murder rate of 2008 even overwhelmed this top of the line facility and during the peak of the murder spree refrigerated containers have to make do with the record numbers of murder victims.
Notable residents
* Not actually born in Juárez, but are known for living there for a long period of time and/or starting their careers there.
Gallery
External links
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- — A look at the positive side of Juárez from an American who has lived there among the people.
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- Ciudad Juárez restaurants guide (in Spanish)
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