In Mexico, a New Vocabulary for Grief and Justice

Most Murders in the Country Go Uninvestigated. Activists and Writers Are Coming Together to Demand Accountability

“Almost everyone lost someone during the war,” writes Cristina Rivera Garza in The Restless Dead: Necrowriting and Disappropriation.  

In 2006, Mexican president Felipe Calderón initiated the country’s War on Drugs, which she describes as “a military crackdown on the brutal narcotrafficking gangs that had presumably maintained pacts of stability with previous regimes.” Its toll is estimated to be 360,000 homicides and more than 60,000 disappeared. Rivera Garza refers to it not as the drug war but the guerra calderonista—the Calderón war.

Violence has changed not …

Alejandra Campoverdi’s Diaspora Jukebox Playlist | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Alejandra Campoverdi’s Diaspora Jukebox Playlist

The Sounds of Faith, Struggle, and the ‘Magic Dark’ Braid Together in This First-Gen Soundtrack

As part of Zócalo Public Square’s 20th birthday, we’re sharing the sounds of the Southland with “Diaspora Jukebox,” a series of playlists that celebrate …

Gustavo Arellano’s Diaspora Jukebox Playlist

Essential Music for this Zacatecano Spans Corridos, the Beatles, and AM Radio

As part of Zócalo Public Square’s 20th birthday, we’re sharing the sounds of the Southland with “Diaspora Jukebox,” a series of playlists that celebrate …

The U.S.-Mexico Corn Conflict Is Popping Off

There’s a Cross-Border Battle Over GMO Crops, Biodiversity, Food Security, and Public Health

On October 19, the United States and Mexico announced that they had formed a panel to review an ongoing dispute over corn. Though drug trafficking and migration tend to take …

Making Pozole and Memorializing Mexico’s Disappeared

Food Reunites Families With Lost Loved Ones

“Food can be a strong place to talk about things we don’t want to talk about,” Zahara Gómez Lucini said at last night’s special Zócalo program, “Do We Need More …

Why Mexico City’s Tepito ‘Exists Because It Resists’

For Over 100 Years, This Neighborhood and Its Black Market Have Thrived by Straddling the Underground and Official Worlds

In 2016, the leaders of several street vendor organizations from the Mexico City neighborhood of Tepito met with local officials with a request: They wanted the capital city’s new constitution …