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Natalia Beristáin’s Noise on Netflix is a harrowing Mexican drama that follows the attempts of a mother, Julia (Julieta Egurrola), to find her daughter, Gerturis, who has been missing for nine months. On her journey to find her daughter, Julia realizes that the trauma she has been experiencing is not her alone as many people across Mexico have been experiencing the same as a result of the country’s high femicide rates. Femicide refers to the killing of females as a consequence of their gender, although the definition may vary depending on the cultural context. Having already racked up millions of hours on Netflix, Noise is a screaming and traumatizing protest against the crimes faced by women in Mexico, where 10 females are killed every day as per official figures.
Noise delves into this dark reality of Mexico through Julia’s story as an inefficient police system, inherent cultural misogyny, and widespread corruption prevent missing women from being found in time, only to be later found dead in mass graves and vacant lots. Over the years, the numbers have only grown. From 427 female victims in 2015 to 1,004 in 2021, the rate of femicide has doubled with no respite in the near future as authorities continue to turn a blind eye. In 2021, nearly 1,000 female deaths have been identified as femicides, and the rate has only been increasing. As recent as 2022, the death of Debanhi Escobar, an 18-year-old law student, was followed by extensive protests by women who held signs reading “Mexico is a mass grave.” The situation has only worsened as authorities has continued to blame victims without acknowledging or identifying the larger problem that has existed since the problem of femicide in Mexico entered public debate.
Femicides in Ciudad Juárez Were the Tip of an Iceberg
The femicides in the cities of Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua, which took place between 1993 and 2005, brought the notorious matter of affairs in Mexico to international prominence when Amnesty International reported that more than 370 young women and girls had been killed since 1993. The term “systemic sexual femicide” was born to denote the pattern of kidnapping, sexual violence, torture, and murder that was noted in all these deaths. It was later found that in nearly 30% of the cases, the perpetrators of violence were men known to the women. This statistic sheds light on the crimes that go beyond drug cartels and organized crime, as it reflects that women are exposed to a position subordinate to that of men because of the gendered inequality engraved into Mexican society.
A large number of the bodies were found to have been exposed to the same pattern of horror, which included rape, strangulation, and murder. While the disappearances and murder of women were part of the life of Ciudad Juárez, a center for criminals and drug cartels, the discovery of eight corpses in a mass grave in November 2001 attracted greater attention. A large number of victims of such attacks are women and girls who come to maquiladora factories to work under extremely inhumane and exploitative conditions.
The signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994 expanded the maquila industry in cities such as Ciudad Juárez. Consequentially, women started migrating to the cities to work as cheap labor in these factories as the opportunity to find financial freedom was extended to these women. But danger awaited them in deserted gullies and plots as the government and authorities continued to acknowledge the crimes against women in most of the reported cases. In all these cases, the botched-up police investigations marred by irregularities allowed the perpetrators to roam free while women lived in fear for their lives.
Femicide Cases in Mexico Continue to Grow
A study by a government commission, formed in the aftermath of the killings in Chihuahua, found out that the femicide numbers were underreported as the data was not properly recorded, with many Mexican states not even keeping a differentiation between the victims based on gender. The commission’s work culminated in 2007’s General Law For Women’s Access to a Life Free of Violence. Three years later, femicide was added to the federal criminal code. However, the statistics suggest that there’s little respite for women who continue to be victims of femicide. The number of femicides has doubled in the past eight years. More concerningly, 11.6% of femicide victims are minors.
24-year-old Diana Velázquez’s rape and murder in 2017, which received widespread media attention, further corroborated the systemic problems in investigating crimes after they happen, let alone preventing them. Diana had left her home to make a phone call before she was found raped and murdered in front of a warehouse later in the day. The investigation that followed proved to be an example of failure in police procedure — one of the reasons why the crimes against women have continued in many Mexican states. Diana’s body was identified as a man’s body initially by the police, and her clothes — the prime evidence for DNA collection — were misplaced.
In the case of Debanhi Escobar, the government investigation suggested that she died after falling into a water tank and receiving a single blow to her head. However, a second autopsy sponsored by her family revealed that she was sexually violated. Debanhi’s father accused the Attorney’s General Office of leaking the report to the Spanish newspaper El Pais. Debanhi’s disappearance and her death resulted in many protests with thousands of women gathering to demand justice for Debanhi and women like her who are murdered for no reason. The fact that Debanhi was exposed to a shame campaign further reflects the dire state of affairs women are exposed to in the country in which they are blamed for their own disastrous fate.
Many sociologists, who have studied the epidemic of femicides that has gripped Mexico, have identified the inherent cultural misogyny and subservient treatment of women as one of the inherent factors responsible for the condition. It has directly contributed to the creation of a system that does not take crimes against women seriously. Noise reflects the same problem as a system of flaws and inefficiencies has contributed amply to the menacing situation. Over the years, the number of femicides has only grown with a greater number of protests following. More than 800 demonstrations have taken place in Mexico against gender-based violence since 2020.
The feminist movement has grown over the years with organizations such as Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa A.C., which means “Our Daughters Back Home,” working towards bringing attention to the rampant feminicides in cities such as Ciudad Juárez. But the official numbers continue to exhibit a growing problem. According to Al Jazeera, over 24,000 women are missing as per the official government figures. While the sociocultural causes of the femicides have made it a problem that will continue to haunt women in Mexico for the near future, it is quite evident that the negligence shown by the government and authorities has only made the situation worse. The motto Ni Una Más, which means “Not Another One,” has become a slogan of frustration for women in Mexico. As the fight by women for women continues in Mexico, the rising and rampant femicide problem reflects a peril that is deeply rooted within the psyche of the country.
Now that Noise has racked up millions of hours from viewers, let’s hope it raises awareness of this ongoing and troubling problem.
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