Medianoche En Mexico: Un Periodista Desciende Por Las Tinieblas De Un Pais En Guerra (2014) - Plot & Excerpts
Scary. Scary. Scary.More than 250 large American cities where Mexican drug cartels operate.People being threatened and killed by these drug cartels in the northern parts of border states and beyond, not just in border cities.Mexicans swarming into the US fleeing from lives with too much change... where they are no longer able to make a living in traditional ways, and more than 10% of the population are permanently categorized as non-employed and non-student, but who are instead a part of a drug cartel.Drug cartel wars in which body counts are in the thousands along the border, with unbelievable gruesome torture (which the author was unable to describe graphically)Too many tunnels for smuggling to count between Mexico and the US, and more sophisticated than many government tunnels today. In today's technology, you can see underwater ancient cities and old cities buried under jungles. It is hard to believe that these tunnels have not already been discovered and are allowed to operate because of corruption.More than 170 government border and protection agents being convicted of accepting money from cartels in one year... how many others were not caught?Corrupt policemen and a "justice" system dependent on bribes... which you pay instantly or go to jail.And even more corrupt politicians at all levels of the government including the federal level.This is scary enough, but you might think you do not need to travel to Mexico. But when you consider NAFTA and realize that Mexico with all its corruption and poverty could become essentially a part of the US and Canada, then the situation becomes even more scary.At this point in the review, I would like to state that I am not an American citizen or resident. I am a Canadian who speaks only one language. So I am speaking with the viewpoint of an outsider.Recently my husband and I traveled from Big Bend National Park along the border to San Diego, including driving through one area in which some border patrol agents were ambushed and killed by a drug cartel. We probably have seen more of this area of the US than most Americans. We also live in a border city separated from the US by a river. During this trip, we saw the differences between our border cities and those in Mexico which have been taken over by drug cartels and abandoned by many Mexicans. We were stopped by border patrol agents at roadblocks a few times. We occasionally like to camp in national or state forests because of the seclusion. We no longer camp in these forests or even in national parks because so many of them even in BC, Canada, have been taken over by drug cartels for grow ops. Signs warned people about being careful while camping in any parks within 40 miles of the border. We did not camp at all.Things have changed drastically in 40 years.We spent a day in San Diego near the border sight seeing and shopping in a nice mall. During the day, I heard English only when clerks spoke to me. All the conversation in the checkout lanes, in the announcements, and among the customers was in Spanish. Legal Mexican immigrants and American families with Mexican roots number more than 10% of the US population, and it is increasing. This is significant enough to swing most elections.We could not sign up for any daily bus tours to take us into Tijuana. There was not enough demand for these trips.I realize that the way this is written, someone might think that I am equating drug traffickers and legal Mexican immigrant families. I am not. I am simply showing that the culture along the border is different now. In my opinion, the US needs skilled, hard working immigrants. This is a totally different issue from the terror that seems to be spreading along the border into the US. We have traveled recently to both north western and north eastern Mexico and we found our trips inland to be very discouraging. Because of these experiences, it was easier to understand the economic and family conditions that he described because we have seen some of them. Alfredo Corchado is a Mexican American who has chosen to return to Mexico and live there permanently despite the threats against his life for his investigative reporting of drug cartels.He is sensitive, he loves Mexico and wants to see it come to its potential despite the continual setbacks that have driven many Mexicans out of Mexico. He is not sensational in his writing. His life has been dedicated to Mexico and wanting it to get out of the control of corrupt politicians and drug cartels. He is not trying to persuade; he is only recounting his story.He has more bravery and dedication than most people in the world. This book is scary; the author is inspiring. As a Mexican American returning to Mexico to report for a U.S. newspaper, Corchado has an interesting perspective. He has a lot of interesting anecdotes about his experiences in Mexico. But as another reviewer has noted, he has apparently re-created a bunch of conversations from memory. This detracts from the factual nature of the book. And since the conversations are pretty stilted, it also doesn't do much for it stylistically. He has attempted to write both a journalistic account of the situation in Mexico and a personal memoir. That's a hard combination to manage, and I'm afraid he didn't quite pull it off.
What do You think about Medianoche En Mexico: Un Periodista Desciende Por Las Tinieblas De Un Pais En Guerra (2014)?
kept my attention all the way through.... happy to have gotten the opportunity to read this book.
—snehashree
Worth reading, especially if you're watching "The Bridge" on TV.
—denus
Brilliant. Reads like fiction, but is haunting and real.
—Lexxy
Overall a good book, it pictures Mexico as it is.
—nikki03
