Drug Cartels Do Not Exist

Narco-Trafficking and Culture in the US and Mexico

Oswaldo Zavala

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English

Vanderbilt University Press
15 May 2022

History; Media studies; Violence in society; Drugs trade & trafficking; Organised crime

Series: Critical Mexican Studies

Through political and cultural analysis of representations of the so-called war on drugs, Oswaldo Zavala makes the case that the very terms we use to describe drug traffickers are a constructed subterfuge for the real narcos: politicians, corporations, and the military. Though Donald Trump's incendiary comments and monstrous policies on the border reveal the character of a deeply depraved leader, state violence on both sides of the border is nothing new. Immigration has endured as a prevailing news topic, but it is a fixture of modern society in the neoliberal era; the future will be one of exile brought on by state violence and the plundering of our natural resources to sate capitalist greed.

Yet, the realities of violence in Mexico and along the border are obscured by the books, films, and TV series we consume. In truth, works like Sicario, The Queen of the South, and Narcos hide Mexico's political realities. Along with these examples, Zavala discusses Charles Bowden, 2666 by Roberto BolaÑo, and other important Latin American writers as examples of works that do capture the realities of the drug war.

Drug Cartels Do Not Exist will be useful for journalists, political scientists, philosophers, and writers of any kind who wish to break down the constructed barriers—physical and mental—created by those in power around the reality of the Mexican drug trade.

By: Oswaldo Zavala
Imprint: Vanderbilt University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 228mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 11mm
Weight: 300g
ISBN: 9780826504661
ISBN 10: 0826504663
Series: Critical Mexican Studies
Pages: 238
Publication Date: 15 May 2022
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

INTRODUCTION: THE INVENTION OF A FORMIDABLE ENEMY CHAPTER ONE: NARCO CULTURE DEPOLITICIZED Corpses Without History: Narco Noir Novels and the Myth of the Cartel Kingdom Neutralized Chronicles: The Journalistic Imaginary on Drug Trafficking The Cartel, Narcos, Sicario: National Security Discourse in American Movies and Television CHAPTER TWO: THE CARTELS DON'T EXIST (BUT STATE VIOLENCE DOES) The Drug War and Its Raisons d'Etat: Sovereignty and Biopolitics in the Contemporary Mexican NarcoNarrative The Recapture of El Chapo and the State's Media Conquest A Latecomer to the End of the World: Trump, the US, the Narco and the Mexican Energy Reform CHAPTER THREE: FOUR WRITERS SUBVERTING THE NARCONARRATIVE Cesar Lo pez Cuadras and the Precarious Life of the Drug Trafficker Daniel Sada and the Return to the Political Roberto BolaNo and the Narco's Face Juan Villoro and the Country Too Faithful to Its Own Image CHAPTER FOUR: DRUG TRAFFICKING, SOLDIERS, AND POLICE ON THE BORDER Imaginary Lines of Power: Politics and Mythology in the Literature on Ciudad JuArez JuliAn Cardona and Charles Bowden, Heretics Preaching in Hell Who Controls the Plaza? The City, the State, and Organized Crime EPILOGUE: THE NEW CARTEL WAR IS NOT NEW, NOR A WAR, NOR BETWEEN CARTELS Afterword for the English Edition Acknowledgments

Oswaldo Zavala is a professor of contemporary Latin American literature and culture with a joint appointment at the College of Staten Island and at The Graduate Center, both institutions part of the City University of New York (CUNY) William Savinar is a writer, translator, and English teacher living in Mexico City.

Reviews for Drug Cartels Do Not Exist: Narco-Trafficking and Culture in the US and Mexico

"""Spend enough time with [Oswaldo Zavala], talk about the drug trade long enough, and, more likely than not, you'll come to realize that most of what you know about it is a myth."" --Freddy Martínez, Remezcla ""A fascinating mix of journalism and academic analysis."" --Niamh Thornton, author of Tastemakers and Tastemaking: Mexico and Curated Screen Violence"