#forever chalino

[acapulco-goldd]

yo no he visto briár las estrellas, me persigue una perra amargura

[xseniaxgorex]

cuando ustedes me esten despidiendo

con el ultimo adios de este mundo

no me lloren que nadie es eterno

nadie vuelve del sueno profundo

sufriras, lloraras mientras te acostumbres a perder,

despues te resignaras

cuando ya no me vuelvas a ver.

[readreadbookblog]

True Tales From Another Mexico: The Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings, Chalino, and the Bronx by Sam Quinones

https://www.amazon.com/True-Tales-Another-Mexico-Popsicle-ebook/dp/B013EQ6JU6

The 2000 Mexican presidential election was a watershed moment. At the start of the new millennium, after 71 years of continuous rule, the ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) lost the presidential election with the winner of another opposing party, PAN’s Vicente Fox.

Mexico would be forever changed following Mexico’s entry into the 21st century. NAFTA would end up destroying Mexico’s rural domestic farm production, forcing many struggling farmers and their families to flee either to the new low paying factory jobs in the cities or go north to the United States, many illegally. In 2006, the newly elected president declared a war on the drug cartels, plunging the country into a very bloody and violent war that is still being fought today. Add that many in Mexico either know someone who is aboard or is connected to social media, Mexican culture is part of the globalization of today’s modern world.

Mexico has changed. Sam Quiones’s book, True Tales From Another Mexico: The Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings, Chalino, and the Bronx, is about the Mexico of before; before the change of political order, before the neoliberal reforms that led to the country’s globalization. Quiones tells fiftieth different stories about the Mexico of old. Each are vary on the quality of interest and length.

The first three stories are the best of the book. The first chapter is about the singer Chalino Sanchez, whose music and image was basically adding N.W.A. gangster vibes to traditional Mexican band music that many Mexicans in the U.S. embraced. Chapter two deals with something that many Americans might think is something of the past, lynching. Chapter three is about the history of Telenovelas in Mexico and how they, and the major network Televisa, were usually serving the PRI’s political hegemony, and also how usually they were a reflection of the society of the time too. I would say that these three chapters are required reading for not just this book, but if someone wanted to know stories about or the history of Mexico.

Despite being stories of an old Mexico, many of these stories still resonate today. Chapter twelve about the notorious Mexico City neighbor Tepito is today still infamous mainly for being the location of the shrine to Santa Murete. Chapter eight’s West Side Kansas Street use to be true about deported Mexican youth and gang culture but is more true for neighboring countries Guatemala and El Salvador. Chapter eleven’s Jesus Malverde is of course still a popular icon for today’s drug smugglers as he was twenty years ago. Chapter seven’s discussion about the various anonymous youth dead women in Juarez has unfortunately not only increased but occurs throughout the country, leaving Mexico with one of the world’s highest rate of femicide.

Other stories might not be as relevant today. Chapter nine’s image of the Mexican congress is an image of the past. Chapter thirtieth’s The Last Valiente is about the now definitely fading image of the typical Mexican rural village tough guy, stories I personally have heard from older Mexican men talking about their days of youth. Chapter four’s The Jotos of La Fogata has to a thing of the past despite the not so progressive stance Mexican society has LGBT issues. And I wonder what is the status of chapter ten’s Leaving Nueva Jerusalen cult, especially now with the rampant drug war and the PRI’s lost of power. 

It is no doubt a required reading for people who study or are interested on the country south of the border. Everyone else might greatly benefit simply by reading the first three chapters, which provides both an educational and informative look at Mexican culture and history and are simply just good stories to read. This book is a portrait of a Mexico pretty much gone today. A sort of nostalgia hit me reading this book, reminding me of years ago when Mexico, and to a large extend, the world was more simple.