No More Missing Women - Poster of the Week
Señorita Extraviada
Missing Young Woman
Ester Hernández
Mission Gráfica
Silkscreen, 2002
San Francisco, CA
31510
In 2002, Chicana director Lourdes Portillo released her documentary, Señorita Extraviada/ Missing Young Women about the growing crisis of femicide, and the disappearances of hundreds of young women along the U.S.-Mexico border. In 2000, Lourdes filmed and conducted interviews in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, bordering El Paso, Texas, and the location of many of the missing women. She examined the death and disappearances in context of the institutional failures that allowed these crimes to continue unchecked.
Portillo pointed out how the growth of maquiladoras under neoliberal policies, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), created an environment where thousands of young women work in low-wage factories, often traveling long distances with little protection. Scholar Norma Iglesias-Prieto described the maquiladora as a manufacturing company that temporarily imports raw materials, components, technology, and labor for assembly, manufacturing, repair, or service processes. Many women working in the maquiladoras demanded better conditions and safer methods of transportation; however, rather than addressing these unsafe conditions, authorities frequently ignored disappearances and blamed victims.
The film’s poster captures one of the documentary’s most heartbreaking moments. Throughout Señorita Extraviada, Portillo interviews not only the family members of missing women but also girls and young women living in Ciudad Juárez about the violence surrounding them. During one interview, Portillo asks a young girl, “Have you heard about this happening to anyone here in the neighborhood?” The girl answers, ”no.” Tragically, shortly after the interview was filmed in 2000, her sister, María Elena Chávez, disappeared. The poster incorporates María Elena’s missing-person flyer, transforming a brief moment in the documentary into a powerful reminder that no family was immune to the violence. Rather than representing an anonymous victim, the poster personalizes the crisis by giving a face and name to one of the many women who disappeared.
Despite it being nearly twenty-five years after Señorita Extraviada was released, the crisis of femicide and disappearances continues across Mexico. On June 11, 2026, much of the world’s attention was on the FIFA World Cup opening event, at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. That same day, but receiving much less attention, family members of the missing, also known as “madres buscadoras” (mothers who search) gathered and attempted to reach the stadium to challenge the Mexican government’s inaction over the femicide epidemic. When approaching the stadium, protesters confronted riot police and fences barring them from entering the streets around the stadium. Many parents of the missing explained that lack of state support often led them to search alone into dangerous areas. It has now been nearly two weeks since the 2026 FIFA World Cup ended. Will the Mexican government finally make meaningful efforts to address the concerns of families of the missing women or continue to shut them out?
Lourdes Portillo’s Señorita Extraviada,is available on Kanopy (free with many public library accounts).
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