Description

At least 200000 people have died in Mexicos socalled drug war and the worst suffering has been in Ciudad Jurez across the border from El Paso Texas How did it get so bad After three decades studying that question Howard Campbell doesnt believe there is any one answer Misguided policies corruption criminality and the borderland economy are all factors But none of these reasons explain how violence in downtown Jurez has become heartbreakingly normal

A rigorous yet moving account Downtown Jurez is informed by the sex workers addicts hustlers bar owners human smugglers migrants and downandout workers struggling to survive in an underworld where horrifying abuses have come to seem like the natural way of things Even as Jurezs elite northeast section thrives on the profits of multinational corporations and lawabiding citizens across the city mobilize against crime and official malfeasance downtowns cantinas barrios and brothels are tyrannized by misery

Contains mature themes