Narratives of Vulnerability in Mexico’s War on Drugs

Raúl Diego Rivera Hernández is an Associate Professor at Villanova University. He has Edited Del Internet a las calles: #Yosoy132, una opción alternativa de hacer política (2016). His research chiefly focuses on cultural representations of the human rights crisis and the War on Drugs in Mexico.

This book explores the current human rights crisis created by the War on Drugs in Mexico. It focuses on three vulnerable communities that have felt the impacts of this war firsthand: undocumented Central American migrants in transit to the United States, journalists who report on violence in highly dangerous regions, and the mourning relatives of victims of severe crimes, who take collective action by participating in human rights investigations and searching for their missing loved ones. Analyzing contemporary novels, journalistic chronicles, testimonial works, and documentaries, the book reveals the political potential of these communities' vulnerability and victimization portrayed in these fictional and non-fictional representations. Violence against migrants, journalists, and activists reveals an array of human rights violations affecting the right to safe transit across borders, freedom of expression, the right to information, and the right to truth and justice.

Winner of Best Book in the Humanities, LASA Mexico section Awards 2021

1. Introduction.- 2. Vulnerabilities and Resistances in Transit: Narratives from Central American Colonial Transmigrants.- 3. "Nos están matando!": Professional Reflexivity on Violence Against Mexican Journalists in Contemporary Chronicles.- 4. Dissident mourners: victims' political participation in human rights activism.- 5. Conclusion.