Date of Award

Spring 2023

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Major

LACS: Hispanic Studies

First Advisor

Priscilla Meléndez

Abstract

In 2006, Felipe Calderón became Mexico’s 63rd president, and within 11 days of his presidency, he declared a “War on Drugs” to combat drug-related violence that has been pervasive for more than 17 years. His plan was to send out thousands of military troops to the states most affected by narcotrafficking and violence. However, the number of homicides, kidnappings, and extorsions surged dramatically during his 6-year term and his alleged “war.” Three years later in 2009, the Spanish journalist Judith Torrea, moved to Ciudad Juarez to document the experiences of those who daily suffered the most as a consequence of their city’s militarization: the innocent civilians. Homicides had tripled from a total of 10,452 in 2006 to 27,213 in 2011. Torrea found that a lot of the violence was perpetuated by the military, and she transformed those findings into her crónica Juárez en la sombra: crónicas de una ciudad que se resiste a morir (2011) and wrote it using a first person, journalistic approach. Daniela Rea, a Mexican journalist, did something similar: she moved to Mexico and interviewed civilians on their experiences with the military and the surge in violence during Calderón’s “war on drugs.” Nadie les pidió perdón: historias de impunidad y resistencia (2015) recounts these horrific stories using a third person narration. In my thesis, I analyze the way in which both of these crónicas relay their information about the quotidian life and the consequences of narcotrafficking in their midst, meanwhile this project attempts to examine where to place the responsibility for the suffering of innocent people in Mexico.

Comments

Senior Thesis completed at Trinity College, Hartford CT for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in LACS: Hispanic Studies.

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