I just finished reading El Monstruo: Dread and Redemption in Mexico City (New York: Nation Books; 512 pp. 2009. $28.95) which may be the last book we’ll ever get from John Ross (Mar. 11, 1938 – Jan. 17, 2011). Little known outside left-wing political circles, Ross grew up in New York City’s Greenwich Village aspiring to be the last of the Beat poets. In 1959, Ross burned his draft card and went to live in the historical district of Mexico City. From that base he traveled throughout Latin America and reported events as a freelance journalist for the remainder of his life. In addition to newspaper, magazine, and wire-service reportage, he wrote something like 10 books about the people and the politics of Latin America.
El Monstruo (The Monster) will pass for a wild man’s history of the capital of Mexico and Mexican politics. Starting with the Aztecs' founding of Mexico City and perpetual rape of their neighbors, Ross’s account takes us forward to the looting of Mexico under corrupt, present-day leaders such as Vincente Fox and Felipe Calderón. Across 452 pages of street-smart narration, readers learn many interesting things: Aztec cannibalism; Mexico’s love-hate relationship with the Roman Catholic Church; Pancho Villa’s boys turned nunneries into whorehouses; origins of the term gringo; tactics employed by striking Mexican workers, to name just a few. Some of those things are even useful: Mexico recruits police officers from its prison population, which explains the absolute police corruption that characterizes Mexican law enforcement and does much to shape Mexican society. Mexican police officers deal drugs, do robberies, kidnappings and extortion, and terrorize debtor families when they act as repo agents for corrupt Mexican banks. There is much, much more. Anybody who wants the dirt and the jokes on Mexico will find loads of such provender in El Monstruo. For certain, reading Ross gives one an appreciation for the extraordinary courage, humor, and resilience of the Mexican people, assets without which nobody could bear up under the burdens imposed by such rampant mal gobierno.
Article comments
1 - MGMZ
Well I'm just DELIGHTED how you blindlessly believe EVERYTHING you read about mexicans and mexico, THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!!
Sincerely Your, A 23 years old Mexican.
2 - Deacon Solomon
MGMZ -- I said "the bulk of El Monstruo is undeniably factual" because the bulk of what Ross says about Mexico is in the public record. The stuff has been reported in American and in MEXICAN newspapers and in books about Mexico. You may not like those reports, but you're simply stuck with them.
With nothing to go on but your tone, I assume you are a Mexican-American. So maybe you should go and live in Mexico City for a while and check this stuff out for yourself. I say that because it seems obvious to me (based upon your objections) that you've never spent much time in Mexico, Mexican though you may in fact be.
Regardless -- thank you for your input and have a nice day.
Deke