Public Memorialization and the Grievability of Victims in Ciudad Juárez

Ciudad Juárez has experienced several years of extreme violence caused, in part, by political, social, and economic conditions in the city. Many victims of violence are seen as “ungrievable” because of their presumed participation in violent criminal activities. The practice of public memorialization is a form of political speech that commemorates victims while also making a claim about the conditions that contributed to their deaths in hopes of rehabilitating them as “grievable lives.” Three types of memorials analyzed here, graffiti, the Villas de Salvárcar memorial, and the Embroidering for Peace project, have had different degrees of success in accomplishing these goals.