John Gibler - To Die in Mexico: Dispatches from Inside the Drug War (City Lights Open Media)

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PRAISE FOR TO DIE IN MEXICO

An intrepid California-based journalist who risked his life to pursue the interviews he records with Mexican officials and victims here, Gibler ( Mexico Unconquered ) recounts an endless litany of violence that has exploded during the tenures of Carlos Salinas, Ernesto Zedillo, Vicente Fox and, especially, Felipe Calderon.... Gibler argues passionately to undercut this case study in failure. The drug barons are only getting richer, the murders mount and the police and military repression expand as illegality increases the value of the commodity. With legality, both U.S. and Mexican society could address real issues of substance abuse through education and public-health initiatives. A visceral, immediate and reasonable argument. Kirkus

Many writers have pondered the evil and madness of the Mexican/American drug war. Few have analyzed it with such vividness and clarity as John Gibler.Howard Campbell, Professor of Anthropology, University of Texas, El Paso

To Die in Mexico shows all the horror of Mexicos current turmoil over drugsbut goes beyond the usual pornography of violence to its critically-informed broader context. Gibler also reveals the brave civic resistance to death cults and official silencing by, among others, some of the remarkable Mexican journalists trying to tell the drug wars hidden story.Paul Gootenberg, author, Andean Cocaine: The Making of a Global Drug

If you want to cut through the lies, obfuscation and sheer lunacy that surrounds Mexicos so-called drug war, read To Die in Mexico . John Gibler reports from Ciudad Juarez, Reynosa, Culiacanthe bloodiest battlegrounds in a fever of violence that has left more than 38,000 dead. But he accepts none of the prevailing mythsthat this is a war between rival criminal enterprises, or between a crusading government and assorted barbarous bad guys, that it is a war at all. An antidote to the sensationalism and mythologizing that dominate the discourse, To Die in Mexico is at once a gripping read and the smartest, sanest book yet written on the subject in English.Ben Ehrenreich, author of The Suitors and Ether

PRAISE FOR JOHN GIBLERS MEXICO UNCONQUERED

Gibler is something of a revelation, having been living and writing from Mexico for a range of progressive publications only since 2006, but providing reflections, insights and a level of understanding worthy of a veteran correspondent. His incisive analysis of the causes of injustice in Mexico... offers an essential introduction to the countrys brutal political and social realities.Gavin OToole, Latin American Review of Books

We are fortunate to have in John Gibler, an astute and thoughtful journalist. Over the past few years, he has reported on conditions and struggles in southern states (Guerrero, Oaxaca, Chiapas) and elsewhere in the country and its northern neighbor. Mexico Unconquered shows us close-ups in the current chapter in a long-running story on our continent. Chronicles isnt precisely apt. Gibler doesnt just serve as a narrator. His prose offers a window into peoples lives, letting us meet the participants in revolts, in their days of triumphant success or traumatic repression, in lives of vision, persistence and hope. We spend time beneath the tarps of [the] Oaxaca teachers plantn (protest camp) in the central square. We ride to the hospital alongside a critically-wounded protester in Atenco. We stand in the visitors line of the prison in Ecatepec. We hear first hand about the ordeals of migration to the US, the violence of the drug war, torture, and disappearancesas well as a daring womens takeover of a [television] station.Carwill James, Left Turn

A mix of fast-moving reporting, poetic reflection and wide-ranging historical texts, Mexico Unconquered is penned in an accessible and uplifting fashion. A clear historical link is made between the authors close relationships with social movements in both Mexico and in the U.S., making the book a useful tool for those looking to delve deeper into the history and ongoing struggle for revolt and liberation in Mexico.Stefan Christoff, the Hour

Part journalistic travelogue, part political manifesto, Mexico Unconquered recounts some of the more bewildering revolts and upheavals that have roiled Southern Mexico from the turn of the 20th century through contemporary times... Gibler is at his bestinformative, entertaining, provocative and fluid.Liliana Valenzuela, the Texas Observer

The pages are quilted passages involving literature reviews, analyses and fierce reporting from talking to los de abajo, or the underdogs, with observations bringing the pueblos alive. His bottom-up chronicle makes him the Howard Zinn ( A Peoples History of the United States ) for the next generation.Traci Angel, Jackson Hole News & Guide

Enlightening and informative, Mexico Unconquered is a must read. Midwest Book Review

From Spanish colonization to todays state and corporate repression, Mexico Unconquered: Chronicles of Power and Revolt , by John Gibler, is written from the street barricades, against the Slims of the world, and alongside the underdogs and rebels of an unconquered country. The book offers a gripping account of the ongoing attempts to colonize Mexico, and the hopeful grassroots movements that have resisted this conquest.Benjamin Dangl, Upside Down World

For anyone who has felt confused, confounded, disappointed, disturbed and yet still enchanted by Mexico, John Giblers Mexico Unconquered: Chronicles of Power and Revolt offers some relief.... Giblers interpretation of a Mexico unconquered testifies to the urgency of current struggles, and celebrates the fierce spirit of Mexican resistance, past and present. In These Times

To Die in Mexico

Dispatches from Inside the Drug War

John Gibler

Open Media Series | City Lights Books

Copyright 2011 by John Gibler

All Rights Reserved

Cover design by Pollen

Cover photograph by Rodrigo Cruz. Inside a car where a man was gunned down by assassins in Guerrero, Mexico.

The Open Media Series is edited by Greg Ruggiero and archived by