SEX IS DEATH. (Being a never-wed mom of four and an illegal alien is no picnic either)

I came to Carthage, where I found myself in the midst of a hissing cauldron of lusts. I had not yet fallen in love, but I was in love with the idea of it, and this feeling that something was missing made me despise myself for not being more anxious to satisfy the need. I began to look around for some object for my love, since I badly wanted to love something. —St. Augustine, Confessions


Follow the bouncing emphasis, kiddies, all of which is mine. (Because nobody else will do it.)

Rocky Mountain News: Together in grief
Dragging victim captures hearts of strangers, and a few friends, during Mass

At Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Aurora, parishioners mourned the woman who was dragged to her death just one day after she sat among them at a Sunday service the week before.

"Her death didn't just impact the members of our church but the Hispanic community in general," said Eva Cardiel, of Aurora, who was one of the thousand or so worshippers who each Sunday afternoon fill the vast octagonal cathedral for Spanish-language services.

Sunday's Mass was dedicated to those church members who have died recently, most notably, Luz Maria Franco Fierros.

Although few in the congregation knew Fierros personally - her family and most of her friends live in southern Mexico - many were familiar with the chilling details of her death.

Authorities say the woman died after being dragged behind a car by a rope around her neck for more than a mile on Sept. 18 in Douglas County.

Her live-in boyfriend, Jose Luis Rubi- Nava, was arrested for the crime and is being held without bail for investigation of first-degree murder.

"Immigrants have a hard enough life. For her to die the way she did is a great tragedy. We feel for her and pray that she finds eternal peace, and that justice be served," said Sandra Echeverria, of Aurora.

Jacki Manzano, a manager at a Denver Taco Bell restaurant where Fierros worked, was among the few at the service who knew the woman personally.

Manzano, who described Fierros as timid and quiet, said news of her death had saddened her co-workers.

"It's not right," Manzano said of Fierros' death. "It's not fair for somebody to do that to a lady like that."

Cesar Gustavo Garcia Flores, a close family friend who said he considered Fierros like an aunt, held a blurred photograph of the woman with an "X" in black ribbon over it.

"We want peace for her," he said. "The details of her death, the horrible way she died, is now in the past. We're trying to go forward now. We want to mourn our loss and move ahead with our lives and cherish our memories of her."

A special Mass will be held in Fierros' honor later this week. Douglas County and the Mexican consulate of Denver have offered to pay the cost of Fierros' funeral and to send her body to her home state of Guerrero.

But Manzano said she also is asking customers to donate money on Fierros' behalf. Flores and another family friend said they, too, are approaching Hispanic- owned businesses for donations and for permission to drop off collection containers.


USA Today: Man charged in dragging death of woman

A man is in a Colorado jail for suspicion of murder after his photograph was discovered near the body of a woman who was dragged through a Denver suburb. Jose Luis Rubi-Nava, 36, was arrested Tuesday night and jailed without bond. He's also facing federal immigration charges. Rubi-Nava was pictured with an unidentified woman in the photo found at the crime scene Monday, but it's not yet know whether she's the victim, who remained unidentified today. Police believe that the woman was alive when she was dragged behind a pickup with a rope around her neck for a mile.


Rocky Mountain News: Mother of four was saving to finish house

Sky blue and white. Colors of the Virgin Mary. The colors Luz Maria Franco Fierros told her family she wanted to be wearing when she was buried to symbolize her religious devotion.

Fierros, a 49-year-old Mexican immigrant (You'll have to wait for it. - F.G.) and mother of four, came to Denver a year ago to work and send her family money to finish building a home that has been a work in progress for about 15 years.

Fierros was killed last week after being dragged behind a car for more than a mile in Douglas County.

A single mother, Fierros wanted most of all to finish building her family's house, said her daughter, Blanca Anel Leyva Franco, 27.

"For us, it wasn't necessary for her to go," Leyva Franco said.

Her mother had planned on returning within the next year, she said.

Born Feb. 17, 1957, in Chilpancingo, Guerrero, Fierros came from a "humble family" and began working when she was 8 years old, Leyva Franco said.

She was a farm worker, a dishwasher and sold candy on the streets, Leyva Franco said.

Because of Fierros light skin, green eyes and chestnut hair, she was known to townspeople as "La Güera" - "the light-skinned one" - said her oldest daughter, Natividad Lopez Franco, 31.

From her early 20s to her late 30s, Fierros waited tables and saved up enough money to buy a parcel of land where she started building a house from adobe, grass, mud, wood and cement.

The concrete has begun to crumble and the mud is now visible in some parts of the house, Leyva Franco said.

Still, the house is evidence of her hard work, Leyva Franco said, adding that every wall and every piece of wood is a testament to her mother's effort.

Fierros mortgaged her house to raise money to come to the U.S.

"If you were here and saw how life is, then you'd know why (she left)," Leyva Franco said. Even so, because her mother always was working, they lacked nothing, she said.

While in Mexico, Fierros rode a tricycle with a basket on the front to sell vegetables at dawn every day. At night, she sold cooked sweet corn. And during the day, for a time she managed a small store out of her house, selling candy, eggs and toiletries.

During her year in Glendale, Fierros worked at two fast-food restaurants and continued to sell sweet corn out of the trunk of her car.

Fierros put the same energy into having fun as she did into working. Lopez Franco said her mother liked going to parties to dance.

"As much as she liked to work, she liked to have fun, yes," Lopez Franco said.

She said her mother called every day, sometimes twice a day, to ask how her family was doing.

Fierros' family is trying to stay true to her mother's spirit and follow her instructions to not be saddened by her death.

She also told them to play music; not just any music, but the music of Mexican pop idol Vicente Fernandez, whom Fierros met when she was young. It was her birthday when she met him and Fernandez sang Las Mañanitas to her.

"She told us that when she died, if we didn't have money to pay for the mariachi, then we should play the music of Vicente Fernandez on the stereo," Lopez Franco said.

So now, in a room in her house, there's an altar with a picture of Fierro, flowers, candles and a boombox playing all of Fernandez's songs that she loved to listen to.

Besides Lopez Franco and Leyva Franco, Fierro is survived by daughter Esmeralda Leyva Franco, 25; son Diego Dionicio Franco, 17; and four granddaughters.

Donations in memory of Luz Maria Franco Fierros can be made at any Wells Fargo bank. The money will go to help her family in Mexico keep their house.


AP: Colorado dragging death stuns victim's kin

Luz Maria Franco Fierros would sometimes tell a friend over breakfast about getting so angry with her live-in boyfriend that she wanted to kill him. The boyfriend, Jose Luis Rubi-Nava, is now in jail, accused of killing Franco Fierros by wrapping a rope around her neck and dragging her behind a vehicle for more than a mile.

The slaying left a bloody trail through a bucolic suburb south of Denver.

Franco Fierros, a fast-food worker whose body was found Monday, was identified by her fingerprints matched to Mexican voter registration records.

Neighbor Zulma Pulgarin lived down the hall from the couple, and the two women shared breakfast almost every morning at Pulgarin's apartment.

"She was very happy," Pulgarin said Friday. "I don't know what happened."

But, she said, there were hints of trouble. Franco Fierros, 49, admitted that the quarrels with her boyfriend occasionally got physical, although she claimed she always landed more blows than he did. The spats were always brief, Pulgarin said.

"Sometimes she would say to me, 'I want to kill Jose,'" she said. The next day, the fight would be over, and Franco Fierros would be happy again, she said.

Lt. Mike Gross of the Glendale Police Department said his department has no record of any domestic disputes at the couple's apartment.

Authorities in Douglas County, where Franco Fierros' body was found, have said little about the investigation, and the affidavit filed to obtain an arrest warrant has been sealed by a judge. Rubi-Nava, 36, is scheduled to appear in court Monday to hear the formal charges filed against him.

His public defender has asked a judge for a gag order in the case.

Franco Fierros knew her boyfriend had a wife in Mexico, but she didn't care because he was nice, Pulgarin said.

The relationship between victim and suspect began last year, according to Pulgarin. She said the pair met at a Denver nightclub last fall, shortly after Franco Fierros arrived from southern Mexico.

Pulgarin said she hardly knew Rubi-Nava, a construction worker, but he always had a smile and a wave for her.

In the Mexican city of Chilpancingo, about 130 miles south of Mexico City, one of Franco Fierros' three daughters said she spoke with her mother almost daily, and there was never any talk of difficulties with Rubi-Nava.

Despite their frequent talks, Anel Leyva Franco said, she knew little about him.

"We want to know what really happened because no one deserves this," 27-year-old Leyva Franco said Friday.

Franco Fierros left behind two other daughters, ages 31 and 26; and a 17-year-old son.

Leyva Franco said her mother left Chilpancingo, the capital of the Mexican state of Chilpancingo Guerrero, sometime after Mother's Day last year.

Her mother had told her she wanted to return to Mexico after paying unspecified debts.

She crossed the border illegally and followed the advice of a neighbor who said there were jobs in Denver, her daughter said.

"She always wanted to go (to the United States) to find a better life, because she was always a single mother," Leyva Franco said.

Her family said her remains would be returned to Mexico for burial.

"I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy," Leyva Franco said of the way her mother was killed. "I wanted her to die naturally."

One last thing, kiddies. Did anyone notice any contradictions between the Catholicism they professed and the lives these people led?

I'm just asking...

Part 1: SEX IS DEATH. (Stories for boys) is here.
Part 2: SEX IS DEATH. (Distaff death) is here.
Part 3: SEX IS DEATH. (Joyously dispensing death) is here.
Part 4: SEX IS DEATH. (Sex is depression) is here.
Part 5: SEX IS DEATH. (When self-pleasuring becomes self-destruction) is here.
Part 6: SEX IS DEATH. (Sex is theft) is here.
Part 7: SEX IS DEATH. (A review of Bareback Mountain) is here.
Part 8: SEX IS DEATH. (What is the ultimate penalty?) is here.
Part 9: SEX IS DEATH. (Haven from reality) is here.
Part 10: SEX IS DEATH. (Sin-redemption-reasons-reason) is here.
Part 11: SEX IS DEATH. (Mommy loves you) is here.
Part 12: SEX IS DEATH. (George Gilder offers a clue) is here.
Part 13: SEX IS DEATH. (Post-killem depression) is here.
Part 14: SEX IS DEATH. (Whither womanhood) is here.
Part 15: SEX IS DEATH. (Saving psychology 1) is here.
Part 16: SEX IS DEATH. (Saving psychology 2) is here.
Part 17: SEX IS DEATH. (Fear of the boomers) is here.
Part 18: SEX IS DEATH. (The battle continues apace) is here.
Part 19: SEX IS DEATH. (Hot for teacher) is here.
Part 20: SEX IS DEATH. (Kids do the darndest things) is here.
Part 21: SEX IS DEATH. (Defects) is here.
Part 22: SEX IS DEATH. (Privates' privacy) is here.
Part 23: SEX IS DEATH. (National Condom Week) is here.
Part 24: SEX IS DEATH. (Wegenics) is here.
Part 25: SEX IS DEATH. (White wedding) is here.
Part 26: SEX IS DEATH. (Literally) is here.
Part 27: SEX IS DEATH. (Can't get me no satisfaction) is here.
Part 28: SEX IS DEATH. (Wrestle with mania) is here.
Part 29: SEX IS DEATH. (Press one for death/Presione uno para la muerte) is here.
Part 30: SEX IS DEATH. (Raunch culture) is here.
Part 31: SEX IS DEATH. (Gimme some of that sweet zombie lovin') is here.
Part 32: SEX IS DEATH. (The devil made me eat my baby) is here.
Part 33: SEX IS DEATH. (Mind control = womb control) is here.
Part 34: SEX IS DEATH. (The expense of playing with yourself) is here.
Part 35: SEX IS DEATH. (You can't always get what you want) is here.
Part 36: SEX IS DEATH. (Whom does a master serve?) is here.
Part 37: SEX IS DEATH. (Shootin' 5 for 8) is here.