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| Document Type: | Book |
|---|---|
| All Authors / Contributors: |
Charles Bowden; Julián Cardona |
| ISBN: | 9781568584492 1568584490 |
| OCLC Number: | 435418539 |
| Description: | xiv, 320 p., [16] p. of plates : ill. ; 25 cm. |
| Responsibility: | Charles Bowden ; photographs by Julián Cardona. |
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WorldCat User Reviews (5)
'Murder City' leaves readers confused
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Beyond the gates surrounding the cabanas and poolside bars of its polished resorts, there lies a Mexico in disarray, reeling from the effects of one of the worst periods of <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120110-710875.html/">economic failure</a> in recent history. A country once viewed as a possible <a href="http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/24/mexico-on-the-rise/">economic powerhouse</a> in coming decades is now crippled and regressing into chaos.
This sudden destruction of a nation's promise is the end game of a myriad of factors, but its acceleration has been driven by a <a href="http://projects.latimes.com/mexico-drug-war/">drug war</a> that has exposed a vastly underprepared government caught with its proverbial hand in the cookie jar and pants around its ankles. A lack of structure and full control has run much of this country into the ground.
With official estimates pegging the loss of life at <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/05/mexicos-drug-war-50-000-dead-in-6-years/100299/">50,000 dead</a> nationwide since the drug war kick-started in 2006 (although that number is likely <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/world/americas/mexicans-unflinching-in-face-of-drug-wars-carnage.html?pagewanted=all">much higher</a>) and no definitive progress in sight, Mexico's drug war has become a devastating problem not even the dashing good looks of its new president <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/07/world/americas/enrique-pena-nieto-confirmed-as-mexico-vote-winner.html">Enrique Peña Nieto</a> can solve.
The battle itself is so widespread and sizable that pegging down its exact roots and causes proves a difficult task. Warring cartels <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/magazine/how-a-mexican-drug-cartel-makes-its-billions.html?pagewanted=all">run rampant</a> across some of Mexico's biggest states, battling to gain control and tighten their stranglehold on a population unprotected by police forces riddled with corruption in much the same way as the bodies in the street are bullets. This is now a culture so imbued in the everyday lives of millions of Mexicans that the monotonous drone of gunshots barely registers as an aural oddity.
Such a frightening level of acceptance and inaction is where journalist Charles Bowden's book <a href="http://www.murdercitybook.com/">"Murder City"</a> attempts to inject a bit of course correction into Mexican society. Bowden, who in between churning out book after book on the Southwestern United States, moonlights as a <a href="http://www.murdercitybook.com/?p=3">contributing editor at GQ magazine</a>, dives headfirst into the problems affecting the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, arguably the region most impacted by the drug trade. It marks what is perhaps his greatest contribution to date: a scathing exposé of the bloody problems that have left Juarez a shell of its former self as its people attempt to paper over the cracks in a most fragile society. With “Murder City,” Bowden has broached a subject many Americans might rather push aside. The fright accompanying the idea that chaos reigns just across the border is one that many might rather feign ignorance of.
The city, as Bowden puts it, has become a society of silence and acceptance. Juarez itself acts as protagonist in Bowden's first-person account of the dire commonality of crime within its limits, and the city represents a far scarier force than even the greatest minds in Hollywood might dream up. This is a place of silence; a patch of land that destroys the souls of all who enter. Bowden's overarching view of the Juarez is ostensibly negative despite his repeated statements of affinity for the city--this city will see no change, the problems run too deep, murder is life and the monster that is Juarez will grab hold and never let go of all who dare enter. With such deep problems, the ability to bring Juarez back out of the hole it has been placed in looks increasingly less likely.
His analysis of the circumstances surrounding Juarez’s collapse is perhaps one of the most in depth of its kind by media on the northern side of the border. With a short news cycle and even shorter collective conscious, the problems Mexico now faces have largely gone <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/15/world/mexico-drug-war-essay/index.html">without discussion</a> in mainstream American media. The bluntness and brutality within "Murder City’s" pages ensure that is no longer the case, and Bowden’s dissection of Juarez’s troubles present a terrifying account of once-unfathomable violence occurring but a stone’s throw away.
Mexico and its people have been failed. The much-touted <a href="http://www.fas.usda.gov/itp/policy/nafta/nafta.asp">North American Free Trade Agreement</a> was meant to open the doors and allow Mexico to flourish. Instead, American corporations now construct <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2002/05/work-and-die-juarez">border factories</a> because relocating a build site five miles to the south means you can pay workers $250 per month in a city where the cost of living is not dissimilar from the North. Old-fashioned American capitalism has taillied another victim in Juarez.
Couple this with the <a href="http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Despite-millions-in-U-S-aid-police-corruption-1710872.php">deep corruption</a> of Mexico's so-called "police force," and you have a perfect storm of sorts that is rapidly morphing what was once a shining jewel in the crown of a growing country into a situation beyond repair. Cartel leaders find officers and detectives easy targets. Underpaid and overwhelmed, it often proves far wiser to turn a blind eye to suspicious deaths in exchange for a nice envelope stuffed with cash and a night at home with the family. This reveals the true problem: in Juarez, nobody can hear you scream. There is no one left in control and murder has become part of the fabric of life.
"Murder City" is a fierce baptism of fire into just how bad things have become in this city of <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2011/01/juarez-model-deaths-2011-artificial-intelligence-drug-war.html">one million</a> where crime is the norm. Bowden's exploration into the depths of the challenges facing a city that has seen its fortunes plummet as the drug war rages on gives face to the more than <a href="http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_17209838">7,500 residents</a> who have lost their lives in the last six years. This is a book that pulls no punches and frees itself of conventional airs and graces. Bowden dedicates an entire chapter to an interview with a paid assassin, a sicario, breaks bread with a drug addicted victim of sexual assault and sprinkles in accounts of gore so vivid they'd make a medical examiner blush. All for good measure to give the full effect.
But Bowden loses the plot a bit as "Murder City" dredges on. The desire to expose the death, corruption and drug trafficking has run him, and his tome, ragged. His maniacal determination is exciting at first--Bowden represents a trailblazer, of sorts: an American invested in Juarez's troubles beyond a 30 second sound bite is a rarity--but that soon wears off. He quickly becomes too close to the subject, too personally aggrieved by the numerous factors leading to the degradation of Juarez's social fabric. This is the fault of poor policing, he says. It's the fault of American corporations paying embarrassing wages to workers across the border in order to save a buck. It's corruption across the board at all levels and it’s journalists unwilling to take a bullet to the head in order to cover what is inevitably Just. Another. Murder. One of thousands in the year, no doubt.
The blame does in fact belong squarely at the feet of all he points his finger at. Yes, poor economic policies led to a cartel growth spurt that benefitted from lackadaisical policing and rampant corruption across the board and grew the drug trade to<a href="http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2012/02/photographing-life-and-death-in-juarez/"> levels not seen before</a>. Greed has destroyed Juarez and everything occurring in it and cities like it is horrendous and deserves far more attention in mainstream American media than the approximate zero hours per week it collectively receives now. But Bowden runs through Juarez's problems with a frightening ferocity that makes you curious of his status as author and not conspiracy theorist-cum-mental patient.
His incessancy is fuelled by the unabashed use of one of literature's most well known techniques: repetition. If Bowden mentions it, rest assured that the same topic will be covered, at length, at least twice more before reaching the end of "Murder City." NAFTA, a particularly tenacious bee in Bowden's bonnet, is discussed three times. American factories? I can't even count that high. "Murder City" suffers from a repetitious structure that inhibits any sort of growth beyond the first 100 of its 350 pages.
Bowden will dissect a murder scene (down to the colour of the tiles) or offer a detailed first-person account of life in Juarez, and then throw statistics out with the speed of a Randy Johnson fastball. This pattern blends life-shattering events into one bloody mess, much like life in Juarez itself. In that sense, Bowden has succeeded in making readers truly understand the monotony of Juarez: murder is life and life is murder. It quickly hardens you. Another father beheaded? A child caught in the crossfire? A beautiful young woman comes to Juarez, becomes addicted to cocaine, raped by police officers and tossed in a mental asylum? Interesting, but where can I get lunch today?
This is not to say that Bowden is a crazed pseudo-author unable to drive home a point without overstating it. This is a good book that sets out to do what it says on the cover and achieves that and no more. Bowden throws death and murder against the wall in the hope that something, anything, will stick. Some of it does, and you walk away overwhelmed but unmotivated--Juarez is in bad shape, barely breathing with no antidote in sight. "Murder City" leaves you wishing for a cure-all and realising the situation requires invasive surgery.
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Voice of Chaos in Charles Bowden’s Murder City
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Charles Bowden’s Murder City: C iudad Juarez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields is a gripping exploration of free-trade backlash and the United States’ role in the further destruction of the third world. Bowden frames his exploration of the ravaging effects that the global economy has on Mexico around four central characters, but it is Bowden’s unique voice and mastery of retelling conversations that draws the reader into the world of drugs, abduction and murder.
In Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, homicide is a daily occurrence wherein the victims simply vanish, their lives erased. Murderers don’t go to prison in Juarez because no charges are ever made. There are no arrests. Most of the time, there is not even a real investigation. Bowden takes us through a year of killings in the Mexican city to reveal the corruption and violence that have shaped Mexico and continues to feed American industry with cheap labor.
Bowden wastes no time kidnapping his readers and pulling us into a surrealistic and dangerous world. The book’s prologue, “Get in the Car,” is one side of a conversation in which the speaker coerces Bowden and perhaps the reader, to get into a car to be abducted. This bold literary move, in which a character directly engages the reader, is an instantly shocking introduction to the constant and impending danger that prowls the streets of Juarez.
By the beginning of the first chapter, Bowden switches to a first person narrative in what becomes a series of interlaced profiles of four Juarez locals. This switch in perspective is somewhat jarring and adds to the overall chaotic experience of the book, a chaos that finally becomes tiresome after 200 pages. Each character’s profile is broken up into several sections and shuffled together so that before one story is finished another has started—or one picks up where it previously left off. The technique is mostly effective, but the constant switching back and forth between narratives is frustrating, and eventually mollifies the severity of each character’s story.
One of these characters is Miss Sinaloa. A one-time beauty queen and now the victim of a brutal gang rape, Sinaloa is a patient at an insane asylum. Sinaloa serves to personify Mexico’s lost beauty, now replaced by insanity after decades of violence and oppression. It is through a poetic and sometimes obsessive voice that Bowden gives Sinaloa an almost mythological standing in his story of Mexico.
“Here is a story, and like all stories here, like Miss Sinaloa, It tantalizes and floats in the air, and then vanishes,” Bowden says in his first discussion of Sinaloa.
It is this ephemeral quality in Bowden’s narrative that carries Sinaloa to a metaphysical existence in his version of Mexico. In his final discussion of Miss Sinaloa, Bowden says outright that she represents more than just herself. She is all of Mexico’s beauty, and all of Mexico’s beautiful women at once, but it is his descriptive language that gives her character its immortal and ghostly quality.
“Miss Sinaloa goes on and on. Her name changes as does her face. Every day, week, month, she shows up in the city with a new identity with her face made up, her high-heeled shoes, tight skirt, and fragrance. And each time she comes to the city, she is adored, raped, thrown in the trash, and lives on with a maimed mind. She never forgets, and the city always forgets her.”
As with Sinaloa, Bowden describes the landscape with a certain reverence. A native of the American Southwest, Bowden’s love of the geography is apparent in all chapters of the book. It is his physical descriptions of the external world that give the book its ultimate aesthetic, offering an almost photographic backdrop to the killings that is sometimes beautiful and sometimes tragically desolate. Mingling beat poetry, sprawling prose, and hardboiled bluntness, Bowden creates a physical world that gives Murder City its true character
Emilio Gutierrez, a reporter on the run from the Cartel, is another of the book’s main characters. Too much importance is placed on this character in telling the story as he is the least alluring of the four. Serving to represent Mexico’s press as a silenced refugee, Gutierrez is a journalist who, after years of negotiating the treacherous waters of Mexico’s narco-economy, is forced to flee to the United States with his son after the Cartel places a bounty on his head. It is through this character that Bowden begins to unravel the tangle of Mexico’s corruption and the Cartel’s ability to silence people and the media.
While it is true that America’s implicit role in the violence that has riddled Mexico is a pivotal point in Murder City , and it is true that Emilio’s story illustrates the blind eye that American policy has turned to the injustice, there is very little revealed in Emilio’s story that can’t be summed up in a couple of pages. Furthermore, all the pages dedicated to him serve to eventually reveal what he did to wind up on the Cartel’s hit list, and it is an anticlimactic resolution to say the least. This is probably Bowden’s way of illustrating that the Cartels need no serious cause to kill, but it just doesn’t carry the same literary impact as the other character stories in the book.
The most stirring character in Murder City is El Sicario, (the knifeman), the Murder Artist. A “former” killer for hire, this character is a foil to Miss Sinaloa. Where she is a victim and ethereal, the Murder Artist is a predator, grounded on earth to an extreme. He speaks about death and strangulation with the same earthly practicality that most people talk about their jobs. “The kidnappings, the tortures, the killings, brought back a sense of self he could not control, the workman’s pride that fills a man when he sees the wall, the house, or perhaps even the church he has built,” Bowden says.
It is through this character that Bowden’s ability to relate a conversation with chilling reality is truly revealed. While his descriptive prowess is obvious throughout the book, it is the reality of El Sicario and his words that will make him a lasting character in the memories of readers.
One of the most compelling aspects of the book is Bowden’s self-emersion into the world of violence that is Juarez. As he struggles to gather information about the “Shadowland” in which he finds himself, Bowden’s voice becomes increasingly frustrated and cynical as the book progresses. There is supposed to be a reason for so many deaths, an answer as to why, Bowden says. There is supposed to be a solution and yet the killing continues. In some ways Bowden’s own character becomes desensitized to the death so that he stops looking for answers, and more and more begins to accept it as circumstance.
Bowden couples this acceleration of cynicism with the acceleration of the murder rate in the city. Indeed, the murders increase to a level that doesn’t seem possible to sustain in a city the size of Juarez. Repeating the death tally throughout the book, Bowden makes his reader feel the relentless push of death that has taken hold of Juarez. However this too gets tiresome. After a couple of hundred pages, I found my eyes unintentionally glossing over these death tallies, or my mind would start to wander off the page. Perhaps this was Bowden’s intent and the point is made, but it fails to engage the reader.
With a subhead that reads, Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy’s New Killing Fields , Murder City doesn’t really address these killing fields in any real length, but rather is a singular example of just one such killing field. At the end of the book readers will be convinced that Mexico is a victim of the so-called “war on drugs.” They may be convinced that American policy makers and indrustrialiasts have been actively involved in the oppression of Mexico’s most desperate citizens. What Bowden fails to do is convince his reader that the violence has any significance outside of Mexico and the United States, and in this sense fails to meet the expectations he sets forth in the title.
The only thing more compelling than Bowden’s descriptive voice is his work as a reporter, and his ability to penetrate the darkness of the cartel and the Mexican government. Though he admits in the book that reporting in Mexico is like “straddling the edge of truth,” as information is fabricated, stifled, and denied as a matter of survival in Juarez, Bowden does what few others are willing to do. He ventures into the “Shadowland” south of the border and brings back with him a compilation of stories that, at very least, convinces the reader that something very wrong is happening in Mexico, and the United States is fueling the problem. But it is Bowden’s beautiful, haunting, and gritty storytelling ability that gives Murder City its lasting impact.
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Murder City Book Review
“<a title="http://www.murdercitybook.com/?p=2" href="http://www.murdercitybook.com/?p=2">Murder City</a>,” a book written by Charles Bowden, is a unique story that deals...
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“<a title="http://www.murdercitybook.com/?p=2" href="http://www.murdercitybook.com/?p=2">Murder City</a>,” a book written by Charles Bowden, is a unique story that deals with unforeseen events in the streets of Ciudad Juarez. Bowden talks about the city facing social problems. He lets the readers to open their minds and have more awareness in the surroundings. As the author of the book, Bowden also offers himself as one of the characters of the book. He investigates the places where violence occurs, such as Miss Sinaloa, El Pastor, El Sicario- to name a few. He represents the places of violence as the real characterizations of the people. “Murder City” explains the social problems, such as violence, corruption and death, which continue to occur in Ciudad Juarez.
Bowden characterizes the various places in Ciudad Juarez that describes the social problems they have.
“Miss Sinaloa” is a victim on violence. It is a place where numerous of violence happens. Drug cartels are formed for controlling the illegal drug trade. Killings, involving the drug trafficking, occur because of the wrongdoings of people. In other words, they are killed due to not following the orders of the powerful people. The murdering in Miss Sinaloa increases because of the drug wars until several women who were raped and killed. The rape cases of dead women are “hardly investigated” due to lack of proofs. Because of the continuous killings, Miss Sinaloa, or also known as “a place of dreams and songs” and “a place for a beauty queen to rule,” is now considered an unsafe place to go. Bowden’s interpretation says that “Miss Sinaloa” transforms from being a “beauty” place to a place of killings.
“El Pastor” is the keeper of the insane. It is a place of continuous crimes that involve the killers and the drug lords. Bowden views that “El Pastor” has had problems in mental health. In other words, he tries to explain that the place has several running illegal drug trades. Drugs were offered, like cocaine and marijuana, which causes addiction and affects the mental health of others. Murdering also occurs in “El Pastor” due to the involvement of drugs, like in “Miss Sinaloa,” as well as corruption. The police went the place to stop the violence and try to recover it. Bowden’s interpretation says that “El Pastor” tries to solve social problems that affect the lives of the people. He also states that people from “El Pastor,” which was now recovering from the violence, are willing to help people from “Miss Sinaloa.”
“Emilio Gutierrez Soto” is the refugee. It is also a place where drug trafficking occurs. Bowden observes that “Soto” allows selling drugs in order to make money for the police and military. Bribery, a form of corruption, occurs. Despite of the culture of corruption, “Soto” is a place where refugees can stay, so that they would not be killed. In other words, they want to protect themselves against killings. Bowden’s interpretation says that economy is affecting in “Emilio Gutierrez Soto” because of bribery. As much as possible, the place is avoiding violence.
“El Sicario” is the killer of violence. It is a place of kidnappings and involvement in corruption. People are killed because of their unprofessionalism in businesses, as well as holding the money. Others are frightened to be killed, so they follow and do their job carefully. Bowden’s interpretation says the “El Sicario” considers a place of death threats, where people were being kidnapped by the robbers and killed because of massive corruption.
Charles Bowden’s “Murder City” relates to the current political views. It involves violence, corruption and death. Violence mostly involves in drug trafficking and kidnappings, then corruption happens when some people want to make more money in illegal way. If innocent people fail to follow the orders by their leaders, then they will be brutally killed. Death considers as the consequence of failed people. Bowden’s book informs on how the social problems have been created and surrounded in Ciudad Juarez.
I found this book interesting and challenging. Bowden lets us to open our minds on social problems. Knowing the culture of violence, he wants us to make investigations and solve the issues surrounded in Ciudad Juarez. Bowden acts both journalist and investigator in the entire story. He informs us about some social issues that have barely discussed in today’s social media, like murder rates. He wants us to have more awareness in our surroundings. “Murder City” considers both fiction and non-fiction, as it is written.
Bowden’s book is mostly believable. The way it is written happens in a modernized century. In politics, the culture of violence becomes traditional, like corruption and murder. The book is proven that corruption results in weak economy and creates higher crime rates. People lose jobs. Robberies and kidnappings do not stop. Overall, corruption causes numerous death threats, as well as the killings. Bowden proves that corruption makes poverty that people suffer. The murder rates are still increasing. Unresolved crimes result injustice, which the society loses hope to have justice. They believe that the government needs more solutions to the continuous crimes. Bowden seems like informing and appealing to the government about the violence. Drug trafficking still occurs in some countries. The mainstream media always tell that illegal drug trade is the great way to make more money. They keep reminding that drugs cause our mental health and will never help to solve any personal issues we have. The media, talking about drug trafficking, seems like to appeal the powerful society to end that illegal way, even the violence related to death, to have the betterment of the economy.
Bowden’s style is written like news information. He convinces us to be more investigative in our surroundings, not just focus on the media who have broad information. The style has more specific information that is more understandable to the readers clearly. Overall, Bowden’s book is a good example of specific and chronological detailed stories that can be a great start to learn on how the media should be informed news stories to the audience.
Charles Bowden’s “Murder City” is a formal written for several reasons. He wants the audience to open their minds in the unresolved social problems. He convinces the readers to be more observant. He also tells us that we also have the solutions to come up to help the lives of the society, not just the government, the police, and the military. The entire book approaches us to face the reality.
The book is written both chronological and cliffhanger. The chronological way shows the sequential events happened in Ciudad Juarez. One of the chapters of the book is written like in a diary form and some news headlines. Bowden wants the readers to be informed and understand the horrible events occurred in Ciudad Juarez. The cliffhanger way shows that the story keeps talking about the social problems. The story seems like there is no happy ending, showing that the culture of violence has become acceptable in Ciudad Juarez.
I suggest “Murder City” should have a great conclusion of the story. Having the conclusion will demonstrate that the story has the overall solutions. The book seems like the readers need to help Bowden to come up the solutions. The story should end up that the violence will stop and the city becomes silent and peaceful. The conclusion of the “Murder City” should be added, so that the audience will understand the whole story.
The book affects me due to the relevance of the current events in several countries. Like the places in Ciudad Juarez, some other countries have experienced the social problems, like violence, corruption and death. The media always report that the causes of social problems are having miserable lives and wanting to achieve greater things. The real causes of social problems do not have unity, hope, and strength to God. Overall, the media and the society must come up with great solutions to end the social problems.
“Murder City” is a recommendation book to read due to well-developed stories and to allow the audience to observe, investigate and reach the goal. The book seems like the events happen in a modernized century. The story deals with violence occurred in Ciudad Juarez. The places are being described as the characters of the people. Although the stories have detailed information, the author allows the audience to come up with a great conclusion. Overall, Bowden’s book is a terrified, but unique story.
Reading the entire book, I realize that “Murder City” looks like specific news information, comparing to the media who inform broad news stories. The book teaches us to learn on how to become accurate in the information provided by the media. So the readers know the events clearly. I could say we should have more awareness.
I feel the fear and pain in Bowden’s book. Levels of killings keep rising. The death rates increase. The economy is down due to corruption. Illegal doings continue. The government barely solves the social problems. People in Ciudad Juarez are suffering. The situations in Ciudad Juarez have similarities in chaotic wars from the past centuries. “<a title="http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Murder-City-by-Charles-Bowden-3191292.php" href="http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Murder-City-by-Charles-Bowden-3191292.php">Murder City</a>” brings me to face the challenges that deal with unending social problems.
<a href="http://www.murdercitybook.com/?p=2">http://www.murdercitybook.com/?p=2</a>
<a href="http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Murder-City-by-Charles-Bowden-3191292.php">http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Murder-City-by-Charles-Bowden-3191292.php</a>
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Murder City Review
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I found reading the book to be an incredibly eye opening experience. I had never understood much about the drug wars in Mexico, and suddenly...
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I found reading the book to be an incredibly eye opening experience. I had never understood much about the drug wars in Mexico, and suddenly saw it from a new perspective, the perspective of people like me, citizens of a city with hope of a better life. Bowden presents a world to us without explanation. I think his primary storytelling device is through description. He describes what is going on and allows the reader to react to it. Because he does not lay out a clear explanation for the horrors that occur, it allows us to draw our own conclusions. Although, I don’t believe there can be an explanation, no matter how concrete the facts may seem, that all this is caused by a fight for power, the why is still under investigation. It is assumed that the drug cartels are in charge and the violence is a result of fighting amongst different cartels, but in a world where the truth is hidden and police as well as the army are killing people as well, it’s difficult to know what to believe.
The author chose this particular subject because it was one he was close to. He lived in Juarez for an extended period of time and witnessed the events in Juarez first hand. The book is told primarily from his point of view, although he may not recount incidents that exactly affected him directly. With this book, the author intends to inform his audience about the tragedies in Juarez and the forgotten stories of the city. Throughout the book, he makes references to many violent incidents and uses three main protagonists to outline the effects of the violence. He uses Miss Sinaloa, a beauty queen who was raped by several police officers over the course of three days, to showcase the forgotten stories of individuals personally and unjustly affected by the violence. There are many stories like Miss Sinaloa that go unnoticed, and Bowden tries to bring a spotlight to that fact. He also uses the story of a journalist on the run, Emilio Gutierrez Soto, to highlight the fear that journalists in Juarez live with. The fear that if their identities are discovered after they reveal too much in their stories about the murders in Juarez, that they may be hunted down and killed. This happened to Soto. He was approached by corrupt army officers and threatened to be killed if he didn’t stop talking about their involvement in several murders in the city, and as a result, Soto fled Mexico with his son. He also uses a third source, an unnamed hitman that started his career as a police officer and turned into a player in the drug cartel. He eventually escaped and found religion and tells Bowden of his life and journey. Bowden uses his story to show a different side of the drug wars, the side of an actual assassin within the drug cartel. He shows a sense of reason from the hitman, his story displays a twisted explanation and understanding of what goes on within the mind of a killer. In all, the three protagonists serve different purposes and help perpetuate Bowden’s view of the city of Juarez as a world of fear, violence and turmoil that many of us will never know the gravity of.
It seems that the intended audience is well-educated people living in the United States or other English speaking countries. The book may seem difficult to read for some people, as it contains a lot of information, violent imagery and seems to have a haphazard yet lyrical structure to it. The style completely evokes a sense of originality as it tells the story in a unique way. He doesn’t use common storytelling techniques. In fact, the stories of the three protagonists are broken up and told over and over throughout the book, each time revealing a bit more of their story. That is to say, there are several chapters throughout the book titled Miss Sinaloa, Murder Artist, and Dead Man Driving, each further developing the characters stories while being interwoven with the violent tales in Juarez that occur all day every day and then are forgotten almost instantly. All aspects in terms of content in the book seem to be structured haphazardly and they don’t seem to make sense at all in the traditional ways of writing, however, this proves to have as much meaning as the content itself.
The structure of the book reflects the chaos and turmoil in Juarez itself. It is in direct correlation with the events in the city, as they do not have an explanation either. Bowden’s work jumps from one story to another and follows a loose chronologically linear order, as it recounts an entire year of murders in Juarez, but information from the past are interjected. The overall structure may seem confusing, but as is the state of the city of Juarez itself. I think the structure is essential in giving the reader a sense of the confusion the residents of Juarez feel, although it is nowhere near the same magnitude. Something comforting about the structure and the book overall is that it does help the story to develop, and by the end you understand that his intention was to share the stories of the forgotten and bring light to the victims and the unjust nature of the situation itself. Through Bowden, the fallen have a voice and their stories are told.
Throughout the book several references to themes regarding explanations and silence are made. Bowden described Juarez as a place where explanations do not exist and in fact, their existence is never even called into question. It is better for the people of Juarez to just accept what happens everyday for what it is and to not seek any understanding. This way, they and their family remain safe and sane. He uses the theme of silence similarly. The people of Juarez, all of them, live silently to stay alive. Even the drug cartels, though they make their presence known, live in anonymity themselves and conversely spread silence amongst the innocent by threatening and frightening them. The people don’t speak of what happens out of fear and survival tactics. If you ignore the violence, you have a better chance of avoiding and surviving it.
The stories Bowden tells each have a unique contribution to the overall meaning of the book. Each person’s vignette is individualized and though there are so many, they must not be excused or forgotten. His many references to Miss Sinaloa throughout the book was intended to keep her memory alive, and towards the end I realized that. I think he did a stellar job at reaching his goal of bringing the accounts of Juarez to the coffee tables of his readers. I would recommend this book for anyone looking to gain more insight into worlds unrelated to our own. Reading Bowden’s work is an experience not for the faint at heart. It is real and it is raw. It does not shy away from violent imagery or intense emotions. One of my favorite scenes is when Bowden recounts an incident where several recovering addicts were violently murdered in their rehabilitation center. Bowden creates a scene in his mind where he and Miss Sinaloa gather in the rehab center with the ghosts of the murder victims of Juarez. They sit and watch as each ghost stands and tells their story, sometimes interrupting each other, sometimes not saying much at all, some don’t even have names. The scene gives the dead a chance to tell their story, something they never had the chance to do.
While we can sympathize with the fear and pain the people of Juarez feel everyday, we can never truly know what they are experiencing. However, with works like “Murder City”, we gain a bit of insight and a glimmer of the severity of their situation. It reminds us how fortunate we are and how the reality we experience is not universal. Bowden gives the people of Juarez a voice, though he may not provide an answer to what they are going through, he does make sure that they are at the very least, not forgotten.
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Murder City, another look at the drug war
For most Americans, the War on Drugs is a hypothetical battle. It is not fought with guns or tanks, but with political campaigns,...
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For most Americans, the War on Drugs is a hypothetical battle. It is not fought with guns or tanks, but with political campaigns, and after school programs. That is not the case in Mexico, where thousands of people die from the battles with the drug cartels.
The rise of violence in Mexico has steadily increased over the past couple of years and most of it is blamed on the drug cartels and their drug war. It is usually not considered an American problem; the Mexicans are killing each other off. But the battlefield is not being fought in military bases or terrorist compounds, it is fought in the city streets of Cuidad Juarez where every person there is a victim and a casualty, Charles Bowden spent a year in Juarez cataloging every murder happening in the city and trying to make sense of it all. What we get is “Murder City: Cuidad Juarez and the Global Economy’s New Killing Field. The book follows three specific people and all the murder cases in Juarez in 2008. It turns into a jumbled mess of accounts begins to make sense about half way through the book, but ends up dragging out by the end.
Bowden gave us a very intense and graphic picture of Juarez. No detail is spared as he describes every murder, rape or torture scene. As he interviews a former killer, we get to find out all about these tortures in very minute detail. Bowden makes the story a very personal as well, giving all the facts and murders a face. The former killer gave Bowden an interview because he wanted to repent for all the terror that it has caused by getting the facts out there on how the cartels function. But as he recounts some of his past experiences his tone changes for a bit. “The kidnappings, the tortures, the killings, brought back a sense of self he could not control, the workman’s pride that fills a man when he sees the wall, the house, or perhaps even the church he has built.” (218)
Amidst the murder accounts, Bowden followed three different people, Miss Sinaloa, the former killer and, and a reporter on the run. Their stories are not told in self contained chapters, as Bowden travels through Juarez and recounts another bloody scene, they creep up unexpectedly and without warning, much like the violence in the city. We find out that the reporter is on the run and heading to the U.S. border very early on, but do not know why or how he got into this mess. These three people represent different themes throughout the book. The reporter represents silence. There are many ways to get killed in Juarez and naming people is one of the fastest. Reporters in Mexico will cover murders, but they never question them, just take the facts from the police. If they are not silent about who is killing people, then they will be silenced by gunfire and the next reporter will not say who murder was. “Certain people-drug dealers, the corrupt police, the corrupt military, these things cannot be written about at all…If someone is murdered, you call the proper authorities and you print what they tell you. But you don’t poke around in such matters.” (89) That is why nterviewed different people, those still alive were kept anonymous, for the fear of them getting killed. In an interview with The New Yorker Bowden talks about how he has seen documentaries about Juarez and they mention people’s names and gets frustrated. It is the same thing with neighbors who witness murders, no one ever speaks, and if they do give out a description, the murders were always dressed as commandos.
Miss Sinaloa represents the hopelessness of the city. She was a beauty queen who was invited to a party and was raped for three days by cops. She lost her mind and ended up at a rehab center for those who have been spit out by the city. Miss Sinaloa was part of the vicious cycle of violence, where murder is only one of the outcomes of the city. In the rehab center she is surrounded by drug addicts, the mentally challenged and others who the city has forgotten. Eventually her family shows up and takes her home, but Bowden notes that she will return the next day and the cycle will begin anew. “Miss Sinaloa goes on and on. Her name changes as does her face. Every day week, month, she shows up in the city with a new identity with her face made up…And each time she come to the city, she is adored, raped, thrown in the trash, and lives with a mained mind…She is not the drug industry, she is not free trade…She is the blood and dreams of a people.” (228) Many of the other accounts were of normal ever day people trying to live their lives in Juarez. They are surrounded by fear and hopelessness and no real way to escape from the city.
Bowden paints the city as a hopeless situation. He mentions that Juarez will be the future model city as the economy continues to sink. “For years, I thought I was watching the city go from bad to worse, a kind of terrible backsliding from imagined destiny as an America with different food. I was blind to what was slapping me in the face: the future. A place where conversation is a gun and reality is a drug and time is immediate.” (138) Corruption in the police department and the military does not escape Bowden’s criticism, noting that every military group made to combat the drug cartels has been corrupt, but he points at the United States and their policies regarding Mexico as a source of the problem as well. In interviews he mentions NAFTA and how it devastated the Mexican economy. He states that the U.S. given the Mexican Army $400 million. But we ignore the facts of corruption, of the economy and how broken Mexico is. Bowden comes to this conclusion around half way through the book. He talks about how much the killing is random and then justified it by saying that young people have no choice, but to enter the drug industry, because there no jobs in Mexico. He comes to a conclusion that the drug cartels are booming and the military, police and the politicians all have a stake in it. He comes through this conclusion halfway throughout the book. While we still have to finish up the stories of the reporter, Miss Sinaloa, and the killer, Bowden has told his readers what he thinks of the situation in Juarez very early on. This could make the reader make up his mind early on and not want to read the rest of the book. The chaotic nature of the book is an interesting style, but he goes a little bit too long with the many murder scenes. A sense of fatigue sets in as the pattern emerges and the same points get repeated again and again.
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- Drug traffic -- Mexico -- Ciudad Juárez.
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- Ciudad Juárez (Mexico) -- Social conditions.
- Asesinato -- México -- Ciudad Juárez.
- Tráfico de drogas y narcóticos -- México.
- Ciudad Juárez (Mexico) -- Condiciones sociales.
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