Jennifer Lopez, 36, is receiving a human rights award for her work in the movie Bordertown. She was the star and the producer of this film that digs deep into the murders of a large amount of women in a Mexican border town. Amnesty International confirms the news. The Artists for Amnesty award will be handed to Jennifer on Valentine’s day at the Berlin Film Festival by Jose Ramos-Horta. Ramos-Horta is the Nobel Peace Prize Winner. Bordertown will be shown to the public of the Film Festival on February 15. Lopez, singer and actress, plays a journalist who reports and investigates the serial murdering of women in the city of Juarez, Mexico, just across the Rio Grande from El Paso. The other big names in the movie are Antonia Banderas and Martin Sheen. The movies was directed by Gregory Nava.

1993 was the year it all began and the murders have continued for over 13 years. All of the women that were killed, were also raped, often strangled and mutilated with signs of ritual murder. They have always assumed it was a serial killer because all the victims were young and had long brown hair and a brown skin. The murders are now known as the maquiladora murders because a lot of the victims worked in the factories that are called maquiladoras.

Juarez is the fourth-largest city of Mexico and is a booming industrial center. Lots of women come to work here because they think they can make some money here, but they all end up in cheap labor.

There have been tuns of speculations about who is responsible for all the murders: drug cartels, husbands, boyfriends, satanists, organ harvesters and even sons of wealthy men who hunt women down for fun. The only thing that can be assumed is that it started out with a serial killer, but that multiple murderers are involved now.

The maquiladora murders have shook up the media in Mexico and the US. Bordertown is not the only film with the murders as a subject. Minnie Driver starred in The Virgin of Juarez, that was released in 2006. “The Women of Juarez, a play by Ruben Amavizca has become a staple in Los Angeles. Tori Amos wrote a song about the murders. Lots of books and documentaries were released with the killings as their main subject. Jennifer Lopez states that she desperately wanted to tell the story when she first heard about it in 1998 from Gregory Nava. She wants to bring the attention of the world to this tragic killings and put some pressure on the Mexican government to bring justice to the people who are responsible for these terrible crimes. J-Lo did some thorough research about the murders and even contacted some of the mothers of women that were killed.

Norma Andrade, co-founder of Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa, an organization for the families of the victims, will give a special recognition to Lopez for all her involvement and commitment.