And for my 2000th post, I introduce you to a mystery I've been ruminating over for several years:
Back when I was young and more callous, I was a fan of
rotten.com, but as I became a more whole human being, I stopped visiting the site. But... back when it was first posted on the site, I was mesmerized by
this series of photos(don't worry, completely safe for work, just don't go 'round to the rest of the site). So mesmerized that I printed them off and have them in my special "work in progress" file. The photos tell a story, and somehow, somewhere, I felt that they would find their place in some of my work as a writer. So today, I was doing my annual purge of files, and there it was again, the photos, with my brief notes.
If you search the net, you will find that this series of photos has been used on sites varying from the
fundamental Christian to the
pro-anorexic community , all to prove whatever point they want to make about how bad the human condition can get. People refer to the women depicted as a crack whore, heroin addict, prostitute, meth addict (not likely - look at the dates!), but never, ever by name.
If you're much of an internet person, you've probably seen this set of images before. I know that since the first time I saw the images on Rotten, I've had them emailed to me via a chain letter about addiction, found it printed (without any story) in a Canadian Magazine, and saw a news story about bill boards of the images being used in the US as part of an anti-drug campaign. But no one tells the particular woman in the images' story.
Through more searching, I've found brief mention of this image having come from a news article about the woman, printed somewhere in the U.S., and that her name may be Maria Ramos. This posting is from a long dead message board thread, and people follow up with questions, but the original poster never responds. Oddly enough, the only other posts I've found in regard to this young woman are by a journalist from my own city, who has created
this blog .
Looking at the images, I doubt the last one fits. I also wonder what's blacked out on all the other placards that she holds - her name?
When searching the name Maria Ramos, I find several references to a Mexican documentary titled "1973" which I can't find locally. The
imdb synopsis notes one of the interview subjects is a Maria Fernando Ramos, refers to her as a drug addict, along with a brief description of a story that would fit with the photos, but no mention of the infamous collections of mug shots, so this could be a dead lead. (Some other Mexican sites list this woman as Maria Fernanda Ramos Macin).
Several of the searches I made list the woman as having died X number of months after the final photo, but this just smacks of urban legend to me... How can someone claim to know she's dead if they don't even know her name? So many varied problems are ascribed to her that they can't possibly
all be true!
Since I've spent the last 2000 posts tell y'all stories, can you tell me one? Who is this girl? We've got people here from all across the U.S., search engine geniuses and so many smarty-******. Who can CortJster this one?
I feel that this woman deserves a name. And that beyond the sometimes exploitative use of her image, there is a human story there worth telling. Or is that just further exploitation? I don't know... but all these years, I've carried her image from home to home, wondering... who is she?
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Topic: The Mystery of the Downward Spiral...(S_S's 2000th post) (Read 24798 times)