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Ciudad Juárez

 
Wikipedia: Ciudad Juárez
 
Ciudad Juárez
Juárez
Skyline of Ciudad Juárez
Official seal of Ciudad Juárez
Seal
Nickname(s): Gateway of Mexico, Paso del Norte, ciudad por el Río Grande
Ciudad Juárez is located in Mexico
Ciudad Juárez
Ciudad Juárez
Coordinates: 31°44′22″N 106°29′13″W / 31.73944°N 106.48694°W / 31.73944; -106.48694Coordinates: 31°44′22″N 106°29′13″W / 31.73944°N 106.48694°W / 31.73944; -106.48694
Country  Mexico
State Chihuahua
Municipality Juárez
Foundation 1659
Government
 - Municipal president José Reyes Ferriz
( PRI)
Area
 - Total 188 km2 (72.6 sq mi)
Elevation 1,120 m (3,675 ft)
Population (2005)
 - Total 1,400,891
 - Density 7,452/km2 (19,290/sq mi)
 - Demonym Juarense
Time zone Mountain Standard Time (UTC-7)
 - Summer (DST) Mountain Daylight Time (UTC-6)
Area code(s) +52 656
Website http://www.juarez.gob.mx

Ciudad Juárez, also known as just Juárez and formerly known as 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.[1] 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 of 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.”[2]

More than 60,000 people[citation needed] cross the Juárez-El Paso border every day, which makes it a major point 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.”[1] 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.”[3]. 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. As of July 14, 2009, the body count in Juarez surpassed 1000, which is an acceleration over the year 2008. This mark was not reached in 2008 until over two months later: September 16th. [4]

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.[5] The binational metropolitan area of Ciudad Juárez-El Paso is "ranked 16th in trade among the largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States."[6]

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.”[7]

Contents

History

Juarez mission and cathedral.

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[8] 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.[9] 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%.[10] According to the last population census in 2005, the city had 1,301,452 inhabitants, while the municipality had 1,313,338 inhabitants.[11] 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%).[10] Though most immigrants are Mexican, some immigrants also come from Central American countries, such as Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Ciudad Juárez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas comprise the largest binational metropolitan area on the United States-Mexico border.[12]

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.[10] 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.

Commerce

  1. The El Paso Regional Economic Development Corporation indicated that Ciudad Juárez is the metropolis absorbing “more new industrial real estate space than any other North American city.”[13]
  2. The Financial Times Group through its publication The Foreign Direct Investment Magazine ranked Ciudad Juárez as the “City of the Future” for 2007-2008.[14]
  3. The Ciudad Juárez-El Paso area is one of the largest manufacturing centers in North America. Only Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, and San Diego/Tijuana have a bigger manufacturing base. The industries include automotive parts, medical devices, consumer products, electric motors, electronic components and other products.[citation needed]
  4. Electrolux, Bosch, Foxconn, Flextronics, Lexmark, Delphi, Visteon, Johnson Controls, Lear, Boeing, Cardinal Health, Yazaki, Sumitomo, and Siemens are some of the companies that have chosen Ciudad Juárez for their business operation.[15]
  5. Ciudad Juárez offers unique advantages for establishing business operations: (1) Transportation costs—operation in Ciudad Juárez has easy access to ports of entry in El Paso; (2) Labor costs; (3) Proximity to the U.S.—airport, logistic services, rail road and others; (4) Cooperative work force that has extensive experience in working with foreign companies; (5) U.S. executives and managers live in El Paso and can commute to Ciudad Juárez on daily basis; (6) Sophisticated transportation infrastructure.[citation needed]
  6. Because of the strong manufacturing and outsourcing activity, Ciudad Juárez has always had the lowest unemployment rates in the Western Hemisphere.[citation needed]
  7. Ciudad Juárez is located in the Mexican state of Chihuahua which is frequently among the top five states in Mexico with the most foreign investment.[16]
  8. Ciudad Juárez is home to one of the largest U.S. consulates in the world.[citation needed]

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 which are played at the high schools and university level. 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 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 20,000-square-foot (1,900 m2) concrete area with multiple ramps, rails, boxes, etc, and a 7,000-square-foot (650 m2) 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.

Ciudad 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: [2]

Channel Name Affiliate Country Language Local National
2 Tu Canal XHJUB  Mexico Spanish YesY YesY
4 CBS KDBC  United States English YesY YesY
5 Canal 5 XEJTV  Mexico Spanish YesY YesY
7 ABC KVIA  United States English YesY YesY
9 NBC KTSM  United States English YesY YesY
11 Azteca 13 XHCJE  Mexico Spanish YesY YesY
13 PBS KCOS  United States English YesY YesY
14 Fox KFOX-TV  United States English YesY YesY
20 Azteca 7 XHCJH  Mexico Spanish NoN YesY
26 Univision KINT-TV  United States Spanish YesY YesY
32 Canal de las Estrellas XEW-TV  Mexico Spanish NoN YesY
40 Multimedios K40FW  Mexico Spanish YesY YesY
44 Canal 44 XHIJ  Mexico Spanish YesY YesY
48 Telemundo KTDO  United States Spanish YesY YesY
56 Canal 5 XHGC  Mexico Spanish NoN YesY
65 TeleFutura KTFN  United States Spanish NoN YesY

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

Places of interest

Rio Bravo at night.
  • 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: The 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, Cafe Dali, 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 40 acres (16 ha) 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 in the early 1960s.
  • 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 10 miles (20 km) south of the US-Mexico border.
  • Parque Xtremo: The largest extreme park in Latin America.
  • Cibeles: Convention Center

Crime

Drug cartel violence

Due to Juarez's position as a border city between the United States and Mexico and resulting drug and arms traffic, 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.[17] 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.[18] 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.[8] [19]

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.[20][21] 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." [22]

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.[23]

On 12 March 2009, police found "at least seven" partially buried bodies in the outskirts of the city, close to the US-Mexican border. Five severed heads were discovered in ice boxes, along with notes to rivals in the drug-wars. Beheadings, attacks on the police and shootings are common in some regions.[24]

Female sexual homicides

Crosses erected as a monument to victims of the Juárez 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,[25] 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,[26] as well as in the novel 2666 by Roberto Bolaño, in which Ciudad Juárez is fictionalized as "Santa Teresa", a border city in Sonora.

The 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.

References

  1. ^ a b Chamberlain, Lisa. 2 Cities and 4 Bridges Where Commerce Flows, The New York Times, March 28, 2007. Accessed March 5, 2009.
  2. ^ http://www.dallasfed.org/research/busfront/bus0102.html
  3. ^ http://www.gdi-solutions.com/fdi/2007awards/Mexico/ciudad_juarez.htm
  4. ^ http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/07/14/mexico.violence/index.html
  5. ^ See “The Best Cities to Do Business in Latin America”, April 21, 2008, America Economía Magazine.
  6. ^ http://www.elpasoredco.com/Juarez-MaquilaIndustry.aspx
  7. ^ http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/travel/31Choice.html
  8. ^ a b Human heads sent to Mexico police, BBC News, October 21, 2008. Accessed March 5, 2009.
  9. ^ Wright, Melissa. "Paradoxes, Protests, and the Mujeres de Negro of Northern Mexico." Gender, Place, and Culture, 12.3 (2005): 177-192.
  10. ^ a b c Coronado, Roberto; Lucinda Vargas (2001). "Economic Update on El Paso del Norte". Business Frontier (2). http://www.dallasfed.org/research/busfront/bus0102.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-09-15. 
  11. ^ II Conteo de población y vivienda 2005. Principales resultados por localidad, 2005. Chihuahua, Instituto Nacional de Estadística Geografía e Informática, 2000.
  12. ^ http://www.elpasoredco.com/AboutTheRegion.aspx
  13. ^ 2 Cities and 4 Bridges Where Commerce Flows, The New York Times, March 28, 2007.[1]
  14. ^ http://www.fdimagazine.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/1974/North_American_Cities_of_the_Future_2007_08.html
  15. ^ http://www.industrytoday.com/article_view.asp?ArticleID=F289
  16. ^ Mexico´s Maquila Online Directory 2008, Fifth edition, page 7, Servicio Internacional de Información.
  17. ^ n
  18. ^ http://www.diario.com.mx/nota.php?notaid=89fb7fc61f65ba9b3163a1172bb90852
  19. ^ http://men.style.com/gq/features/full?id=content_7210&pageNum=1
  20. ^ http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/01/06/mexico.violence/index.html
  21. ^ http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=322059&CategoryId=14091
  22. ^ "Travel Alert". U.S. Department of State. 2009-02-20. http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_3028.html. Retrieved on 2009-02-23. 
  23. ^ Malone, Andrew. Thousands of Mexican soldiers pour into the country's most violent city in crackdown on drug gangs, Daily Mail, March 4, 2009. Accessed March 5, 2009.
  24. ^ "BBC NEWS". http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7944427.stm. Retrieved on 2009-03-15. 
  25. ^ http://www.amazon.com/Daughters-Juarez-Serial-Murder-Border/dp/0743292030
  26. ^ http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Fields-Harvest-Women/dp/0615140084/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230485886&sr=8-2

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