The main device with which we have tried to understand the violence in Mexico since the declaration of the so-called "war on drugs", or narcoguerra, in 2006, is narration. It would take an immense amount of time to mention all the novels, TV shows, movies, documentaries, and short stories that attempt to produce a cohesive picture of the armed conflict between the Mexican State and its citizens.
In this heart-wrenching and luminous collection of poems, Jorge Humberto Chávez resists the temptation of reproducing the same perspectives that make these narratives incomplete, or myopic, by putting the experience of the people of Ciudad Juárez in the center of his enunciation. His poetic voice reveals, not the intricate inner workings of powerful cartels nor the heroic actions of a monstruous State, but the everyday, hurtful consequences that violence has on regular people. His poems trace the line of the border as a disappearing presence that shows us the only possible truth: we hurt the most when the city that we love vanishes in front of our eyes, with our Friends and loved ones as dry and grieving as the Río Bravo.
Bruno Ríos
