“We are the living women of Juárez”: Female hip-hop in Ciudad Juárez

Abstract

This article seeks to explore and analyze the meaning of being a young woman in Ciudad Juárez through the analysis of the subjective processes whereby the young women who produce hip-hop, particularly rap, question, subvert and/or reproduce gender representations. It analyzes what it means for them to identify themselves as “the living women of Juárez,” as an act of transgression which recovers life as a political act from which to recover their lives, voices and bodies. Rap creates spaces for the encounter, critical reflection, denunciation and construction of everyday life.