Laila Espinoza Letter to Tia Chita Tia Chita! They continue to kill the women! Only now, they don’t get as much attention because there is a war between the drug cartels. Every day, women and men, children! are murdered! Children that work for the drug lords so as not to die of hunger or to live, if only for a moment, the American Nightmare. As a monument for the women, a cross has been installed at the border, a pink cross, ridden with nails and bleeding roses. “Ni Una Mas!” The pink cross cries. We were little girls entering adolescence. I remember you called us into the kitchen. “Sit down, I have something to read to you all. PAY ATTENTION. Mujercitas found in desert maquiladora parking lots, en las lomas, in the city outskirts, raped, tortured, mutilated…” “Tia Chita, what does mutilated mean?”… PAUSE…BREATHE…”From this day one, none of you is allowed to go out into the streets alone, UNDERSTAND?”…”But Tia, who is killing the women?”… Tia Chita, you didn’t skip a detail even if the news ravaged your corazon as it chocked your eternal voice. Me da mucha pena decirte que las cosas solo se han puesto peor…Is there anything you can do for Juarez from where you are? If it is true that there are angels where you live now, can they help too? And what about Dios?... TE QUIERO CON TODA MI ALMA TIA,