Skip to main content

Theme: Mexico

Editorial

Mexico’s deadly war on information

Ioan Grillo, in his harrowing article about Mexico’s war on drugs in this issue of PEN/Opp, raises a disturbing question...

Text: Ola Larsmo March 09 2013
Interview

“Every journalist's life is in danger”

Cartels and government authorities tried to silence the media in Ciudad Juárez with violence and threats. But journalists in the Mexican border town refused to give up and created a network to protect...

Text: Ylva Mossing March 10 2013
Article

Press responds to murderers

The drug-related violence in Ciudad Juárez in northern Mexico in the past 20 years has made the border town into one of Mexico's most dangerous places. Shootings, kidnappings, carjackings, and curfews...

Text: Alicia Quiñones March 10 2013
Article

A letter from Elena Poniatowska

Elena Poniatowska is one of Mexico's most famous authors and commentators. Here we reproduce a letter to PEN/Opp about the role PEN's campaigns actually play in today's Mexico.

Text: Elena Poniatowska Amor March 10 2013
Fiction

La Cucaracha, La Cucaracha

Poet and literary critic Víctor Manuel Mendiola looks with dismay at what is happening in his home country of Mexico. In a very personal reflection, he recalls memories of times long past—the Mexico...

Text: Víctor Manuel Mendiola March 09 2013
Article

A land where the storyteller is the story

What actually happens to the people in a country under the yoke of violence? The image of Mexico as a violent country risks ultimately becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Jennifer Clement, poet...

Text: Jennifer Clement March 09 2013
Article

“Impunity is still the rule”

74 journalists have been murdered in Mexico since 2000. Not a single case has led to charges or sentences. Either because the crimes are being committed with approval from the powers that be or due to...

Text: Pat Hirschl, Lucina Kathmann March 09 2013
Poetry

The Mexico of Juárez

Puns and ambiguities are one of Luis Miguel Aguilar's trademarks. His poem entitled “Juárez” refers to both national hero Benito Juárez, 1806–1872, and the city of Juárez—the most dangerous place on...

Text: Luis Miguel Aguilar March 09 2013
Fiction

Testimony #1: “We got out of Tamaulipas alive”

Most of the times journalists are kidnapped in Mexico, it ends in murder. Raymundo Pérez Arellano got lucky—he survived. He tells PEN/Opp what happened and why he was kidnapped.

Text: Raymundo Pérez Arellano March 09 2013
Article

Narco war on TV screens

The reality in Mexico is scary—and the drug mafia wants people to be scared. As a journalist in Mexico, can you show people what's really happening—or do you serve the purposes of the criminal...

Text: Ioan Grillo March 09 2013

Search