Category Archives: literature on mexico

CSUN journalism professor José Luis Benavides interviews Charles Bowden

Cal State Northridge, journalism professor, José Luis Benavides, interviews journalist and author Charles Bowden, April 22, 2013.

Over the last twenty years Bowden has authored several books on the violence occurring on the border between the United States and Mexico, focusing on Ciudad Juárez. Benavides and Bowden discuss the factors that led to his decision to start writing about the atrocities that Mexico’s powerful and, well-connected, elite carry out against the poor citizens of the country. At the forefront of his decision were the local street photographers that he encountered during a murder story he was investigating in Juárez in 1995. Bowden continues to tell the true story of why such an overwhelming amount of violence exists in Juárez.

After writing a piece about the exceptional work of the Juárez photographers, he discusses the origins of his friendship and collaborative working relationship with Juárez photographer, Julián Cardona. Bowden and Cardona have collaborated on several books. In “Juárez: Laboratory of our Future” Bowden shares how “American generated poverty in factories owned by American companies that pay slave wages,” are not enough for Mexican citizens, working in maquiladoras (foreign owned factories along the US/Mex. border), to survive. The book “Exodus/Éxodo” documents the emigration of Mexican citizens.

El Sicario Room 164 showing at Fountain Theater, Mesilla, Saturday May 5

Film update: El Sicario at Fountain; PCFF forms film club, adds ‘Rocky
Horror’

The *Fountain Theatre* in Mesilla will screen *”El Sicario, Room 164″* the
El Paso-made documentary about a former Juarez cartel hit man, at 1 and
3:30 p.m. May 5.

Las Cruces’ *Molly Molloy*, co-author of the book “El Sicario,” will be on
hand, theater staff says.

Her co-author, *Charles Bowden*, may also appear. He’s written several
books on the border and is co-producer of the film.

“There are NO scenes of violence in the 85-minute film,” the theater’s *Jeff
Berg* said in a press release. “It is a fascinating monologue by the man in
the mask.”

*Variety* called the film, directed by Gianfranco Rosi, as “a minimalist
study in maximum violence.”

Tickets are $6, $5 for Mesilla Valley Film Society.

Theater officials suggest early arrival since the village will be having
Cinco de Mayo festivities nearby.

For more, click here

Crime ranks as one of world’s ‘top 20 economies: UN… Reuters

It has been a while since I recommended the book GOMORRAH, by Roberto
Saviano. It describes organized crime networks in Italy and across Europe
and is one of the keys (IMO) to understanding what is happening in Mexico
and Central America also.  Highly recommended.

Crime ranks as one of world’s ‘top 20 economies’, UN official says

Crime generates an estimated US$2.1-trillion in global annual proceeds – or 3.6% of the world’s gross domestic product – and the problem may be growing, a senior United Nations official said on Monday.

“It makes the criminal business one of the largest economies in the world, one of the top 20 economies,” said Yury Fedotov, head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), describing it as a threat to security and economic development.

The figure was calculated recently for the first time by the UNODC and World Bank, based on data for 2009, and no comparisons are yet available, Fedotov told a news conference.

To read more, click here

Molly Molloy presents talk on ‘El Sicario’ at NM library conference…LCSunNews

you just can’t shut those librarians up….

Molly Molloy presents talk on ‘El Sicario’ at NM library conference

LAS CRUCES — It wasn’t your typical story hour Friday, as New Mexico State University research librarian Molly Molloy told the story, and answered questions, about the book she co-wrote with Charles Bowden.

Many of the librarians from across New Mexico who attended Molloy’s presentation, during the New Mexico Library Association annual conference, at the Las Cruces Convention Center, sat on the edge of their seats as she spoke about “El Sicario,” the autobiography of a repentant Mexican contract killer, who before turning his life to Christ, worked both sides of the drug war in Mexico, particularly in Juárez. Molloy talked about the former commandante of the Chihuahuan state police who also led a double life as a hitman who kidnapped, tortured and murdered people at the behest of Mexican drug cartels.

All who attended Molloy’s presentation listened intently.

to read more, visit Las Cruces Sun-News

 

 

Robert Andrew Powell, CBC interview on Salvation and Soccer in C. Juarez…

The Love is Not for Cowards: Salvation and Soccer in Ciudad Juarez

by Robert Andrew Powell

Soccer has a reputation for bringing hope to places where hope is hard
to come by.

One of those is Cuidad Juarez, a city that competes with places like
Mogadishu for the title of world’s deadliest spot.

It’s hard to get an exact count, but by all reasonable estimates, over
two thousand people were killed in Juarez last year. This year, there
have already been over three hundred killings. The majority of these
murders have been victims of the region’s drug cartels, a great many
of them innocent civilians.

To read more and listen to the audio, visit CBC Radio

NY Times- Team of Hope, Gone in City of Violence

 

 

Fabrica del Crimen (Murder Factory)…the new book by Sandra Rodriguez Nieto

The new book *LA FABRICA DEL CRIMEN [CRIME FACTORY]* , by award-winning El  Diario reporter Sandra Rodriguez was presented on Friday night at the UACJ bookstore in Juarez. Published by Planeta, the book looks at the
forerunners of the current hyper-violence in the city with details on
murders, gang life and riots in Juarez prisons, government malfeasance,
corruption at all levels of law enforcement, and most importantly, the
crisis of impunity. The murderers portrayed in the book state clearly that
they never thought their crimes would be punished. Rodriguez is an
investigative journalist and it is her research into the justice system in
Juarez and Chihuahua that provides practically the only evidence of the
actual and almost complete lack of prosecution or punishment of more than
95% of homicides and other crimes in the city. Many of the events in her
book pre-date the explosion of extreme violence in 2008 and the detailed
reporting in the book is essential to even beginning to understand what is
happening in the city and why it is now one of the the most violent places
on the world.  This is a VERY IMPORTANT book.

This Love is Not for Cowards–Reviewed in The Economist….

OK—I admit to gladly promoting the works of FRONTERA-LISTEROS who write
books and make movies… Robert Andrew Powell’s book about the Indios
soccer team is just out and it is getting very-well-deserved attention… I
will note though, that these reviewers criticize every book for not doing
everything… It is a bit of a stretch that a writer who is telling us the
story of the soccer team in the most violent city in the world must also
solve or elucidate the myriad social, criminal, economic, historic problems
of Mexico that contribute to the human rights catastrophe that is Juarez…
molly

“The complexity of Juárez’s problems means that the anecdotal style of the
book sometimes feels thin. In one excellent chapter Mr Powell makes a
convincing case that the infamous murders of women in Juárez have been
exaggerated by an excitable media. But elsewhere he repeats popular
theories (about the alleged corruption of politicians, or the supposed
failure of Mexico’s free-trade deal with America) without really probing
them. Near the end he mentions that the Indios themselves might be a giant
money-laundering operation. This important claim deserves more than the few
pages’ attention it receives, 21 chapters into the book.”

I’d recommend two other books that tell wonderful, human and personal
stories in the midst of cataclysmic world events–Powell’s book reminds me
of these excellent books chronicling human triumph in the midst of
disaster… READ THEM ALL and start with THIS LOVE IS NOT FOR COWARDS.

The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad

Fools Rush In: A True Story of Love, War and Redemption

The Economist- Football and Murder in Mexico

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fabrica del Crimen (Murder Factory)…the new book by Sandra Rodriguez Nieto

The new book *LA FABRICA DEL CRIMEN [CRIME FACTORY]* , by award-winning El
Diario reporter Sandra Rodriguez was presented on Friday night at the UACJ
bookstore in Juarez. Published by Planeta, the book looks at the
forerunners of the current hyper-violence in the city with details on
murders, gang life and riots in Juarez prisons, government malfeasance,
corruption at all levels of law enforcement, and most importantly, the
crisis of impunity. The murderers portrayed in the book state clearly that
they never thought their crimes would be punished. Rodriguez is an
investigative journalist and it is her research into the justice system in
Juarez and Chihuahua that provides practically the only evidence of the
actual and almost complete lack of prosecution or punishment of more than
95% of homicides and other crimes in the city. Many of the events in her
book pre-date the explosion of extreme violence in 2008 and the detailed
reporting in the book is essential to even beginning to understand what is
happening in the city and why it is now one of the the most violent places
on the world.  This is a VERY IMPORTANT book.
Below are articles from El Pais and El Diario, followed by uncorrected
google translations… Also, an article from ALMARGEN (not translated).

 

‘El Sicario’ revela cómo funciona el crimen organizado en México–CNN Mexico

CNN Mexico features the documentary El Sicario 164 and the book,
Sicario: Autobiografia de un asesino a sueldo…
This is the Mexican edition of the sicario’s life story, edited by
myself and Charles Bowden. It is just out in Mexico, published by
Random House, Grijalbo.