Sagrario Gonzalez

In 1998 a young teenager by the name of Sagrario Gonzalez disappeared in Juarez on her way home from work at a maquiladora. Unfortunately, like so many other poor girls which had moved to Juarez from the interior of Mexico with their families to seek work in the American based maquiladoras of Juarez, 17 year old Sagrario was met foul play. Two weeks after her disappearance Sagrario's body was found in an abandoned lot. Although police believe that she had been raped before she was strangled and stabbed, her body was too decomposed to determine. To this day no one has been brought to justice for Sagrario's murder.

Determined to not let Sagrario and the other victims be forgotten, Sagrario's older sister Guillermina went on to form a grassroots organization called Voices Without Echo. Family members of other victims soon joined the organization with a goal of keeping the murdered women of Juarez in the headlines. The group began to paint black crosses with a pink back ground on utility poles around the city. I must admit I had seen the painted utility poles before but had no idea what their significance was. Sadly in 2001 Guillermina announced she would have to disband the group she founded, Voices Without Echo. She was now engaged to man who had lost a daughter from a previous marriage to a violent death also, and without any funding which had been promised to her for expenses it was impossible for her to continue the group. The group won many challenges for victims' family in the few years it existed but on 07/18/01 the group ceased all operations.