#acapulco mexico cartels | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

therealslimsanji · 4 months

Note

I... I really want to cry. I just read on instagram what could be the most chilling comment ever.

This person basically said "The only cause I care about is Palestine. Talking about casualties without mentioning palestinians is worthless".

I'm mexican and currently living in Mexico. Last year a strong hurricane reduced Acapulco to rubble. Finding piles of dead immigrants all cramped up into trailers or other tight spaces has happened more times than it should. Drug cartels will execute entire communities just because "they felt like it". I still remember the pain of Maricela Escobedo (there's a documentary about her story on Netflix, but it's not for the faint of heart). Maybe these ocurrances are nothing next to a genocide. But there is pain, suffering and death.

I was happy with Taz's statement. It felt sincere to me because I interpreted that he addressed all the injustice in the world, including my country's. What I understood is that a tragedy is a tragedy no matter how small or big, and they all deserve to be addressed. We all deserve help. But some people wanted his statement to be only about them.

I really, REALLY wanted to respond to this one commenter: "oh so then you don't care about the indigenous people in Mexico who are either murdered or forced to leave their homes without nothing? I should assume then that you are a racist". You know? Apply the same logic they used to harrass Taz, twist their words, expose them to others as "not-so-saint-and-noble-after-all". But I couldn't. I just don't have the heart. Besides they would probably answer with something like "yeah but at least there's not a genocide as big as Palestine's in your country".

I cry for my people. I cry for the people of palestine. I cry for those that are going through similar tragedies.

But this one commenter, and maybe many other like them... they do not cry for the rest of us.

You absolutely should have! Because it IS the same logic. Death is death. Suffering is suffering. Innocents are INNOCENTS. If I see their comment on Instagram then I might just say your reply for you. Just to get their reaction. I understand a natural disaster is very different from a deliberate genocide. But, as you were saying, the situation with the Cartel is still murder. And God KNOWS how many people the Cartel have COLLECTIVELY killed. I live in Texas and I worked with this manager who would go between Texas and Mexico a lot for medical procedures because they're cheaper for him in Mexico. We used to talk about the Cartel and the amount of people they've murdered while trying to come to America and what not.

But yeah you 100% should have played that reverse uno card on them.

#taz skylar #opla #one piece #sanji #opla sanji #vinsmoke sanji #one piece live action #one piece netflix #one piece la #opla vinsmoke sanji

17 notes · View notes

rastronomicals · 22 days

Video

youtube

12:11 AM EDT April 18, 2024:

Rush - "A Passage to Bangkok" From the album 2112 (February 1976)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

Ah, shit, is it the times that have changed, or is it I who have? When I first heard "A Passage to Bangkok" as a 16-year old, I was fairly certain I'd never heard anything so very fucking cool before. That's one of the things about adolescence (even aside from a fascination with controlled substances): it's very prone to superlatives. These days, while I still might be tempted to term "Passage" the "best weed song ever," I'm aware, in that world-weary way of an adult, that there might just be a better weed song out there, one I've not heard as of yet, or maybe even one, shit, that I've forgotten. I'm also a little more likely to temper my enthusiasm for the song just based on the subtext that the lyrics have sadly gained with me over the years. Let's take a look at those lyrics for a second.

Our first stop is in Bogota To check Colombian fields The natives smile and pass along A sample of their yield Sweet Jamaican pipe dreams Golden Acapulco nights Then Morocco, and the East, Fly by morning light [Chorus] We're on the train to Bangkok Aboard the Thailand Express We'll hit the stops along the way We only stop for the best Wreathed in smoke in Lebanon We burn the midnight oil The fragrance of Afghanistan Rewards a long day's toil Pulling into Katmandu Smoke rings fill the air Perfumed by a Nepal night The Express gets you there [Chorus]

While I have maintained all along a sort of admiration at Rush's literacy, and their ability to come to a point (a talent many bands further along the prog scale don't always share), a quick scan of the lyrics yields an awful lot of blood. To the world-weary these days, "A Passage To Bangkok" is not only a seeming tour of the world's great trouble spots, half of it seems a tour of places that have been deeply and mortally affected by the black market sale of illicit recreational drugs.

The band's first stop was in Bogota, and while the Cali and Medellin cartels are dead, the gunmen and the carbombs used during the '80's to carry out over 3500 brutal assassinations of political foes and uncorrupt police remain as their chief legacy. My sixteen-year old self was thrilled by the mention of Acapulco Gold, but the cynical 58-year old version is unfortunately first reminded of the thousands of headless corpses that were found in Mexico last year, all victims of the country's notoriously savage drug cartels, who have for the most part declared war on the country's elected government. And while I can't seem to read

The fragrance of Afghanistan Rewards a long day's toil

without cracking up anymore, I remain sobered by the known and established connection between the Taliban and drug smuggling. Be careful now with what you take from what I write. I'm not necessarily being critical of Rush for writing the song back in the naive '70's, or even for continuing to perform the song until the band ended. I'm not even finding fault with those who have chosen to smoke marijuana regularly--although I might there proffer the advice I give in other problematic arenas: Buy American, dude. No, what I'm lashing out at is this tenet I've learned all too well as I've grown older: Nothing is simple, nothing is easy. Everything carries strings, I've been sad to learn, and though a naive teenager just wants to be left alone with his preferred high volume music to craft his personal buzz in peace, the real world in fact never leaves you alone, and never will. So much so, in fact, that it will steadfastly and ruthlessly erode the ramparts of your youth when you're not even looking. Take "A Passage To Bangkok." It's a song about partying, and it takes itself so seriously that it employs the Asian riff not once, but twice. It's a clever song, a fun song, but the years have done their work on me such that I can't even listen to the fucking thing--a totem of my Rock 'n' Roll Number One, Disco Sucks adolescence, mind you--without becoming all preachy and prescriptive about it.

File under: Best weed song ever--for what it's worth

#Rush #2112 #A Passage To Bangkok

0 notes

swamyworld · 28 days

Text

Police official shot to death in Acapulco, latest incident of deadly violence in Mexico's resort

The head of traffic police was shot to death Thursday in Mexico’s troubled Pacific coast resort of Acapulco. The city government said gunmen killed Eduardo Chávez, the head of municipal traffic police. The assailants opened fire on Chávez on a street relatively far away from the resort’s beaches. The crime is under investigation. Drug cartels in Mexico often force bus and taxi drivers to work for…

View On WordPress

0 notes

readingforsanity · 5 months

Text

American Dirt | Jeanine Cummins | Published 2020 | *SPOILERS*

Jeanine Cummins's American Dirt, the #1 New York Times bestseller and Oprah Book Club pick that has sold over two million copies, is finally available in paperback.

Lydia lives in Acapulco. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while cracks are beginning to show in Acapulco because of the cartels, Lydia's life is, by and large, fairly comfortable. But after her husband's tell-all profile of the newest drug lord is published, none of their lives will ever be the same.

Forced to flee, Lydia and Luca find themselves joining the countless people trying to reach the United States. Lydia soon sees that everyone is running from something. But what exactly are they running to?

Lydia and her 8-year-old son Luca embark on a treacherous journey from the city of Acapulco in Mexico to travel North to the United States as migrants. Lydia's husband and Luca's father, a well-known journalist in their hometown, is gunned down, alongside 16 of Lydia's family members in a violent outcry of rage from the city's main cartel, Los Jardineros.

When Lydia befriended the jefe of the cartel, unknowingly, the two of them embarked on a strange friendship that was a one-sided love story for Javier. Lydia never reciprocated his feelings, though the two of them remained friends. When Lydia learned the truth of her closest friend, of the violence he had ensued on innocents around the city and around the country, she began to hate him, though their friendship continued.

After the murderous rampage that ended the lives of several of her family members, Lydia knows that the only thing she and Luca can do is run, as far away as they can, as quickly as they can, to gain entry into the United States and thus, freedom from Javier.

The journey is scary. The two of them meet strange characters along the way, including that of Soledad and Rebeca, gorgeous sisters from Honduras, also on their way to meet their cousin in Maryland, who took the journey himself many years before. This cousin has ensured a coyote would take them through the deserts of the US to safety.

Their travels leave them exhausted, and every new person that enters into their little circle Lydia questions them. They meet Lorenzo, a former Los Jardineros who promises that he is not there to tell Javier of there whereabouts, that he got tired of the violence and is on his way to seek asylum in the US himself.

They are robbed and beaten, and the sisters are raped and tortured, but eventually, they make it to the border of Mexico and the United States, where they meet their coyote, who is known only as El Chacal, or the jackal. For three days, they are kept inside a cramped apartment with other migrants, and finally, they are able to begin their trek into the United States.

The trek is treacherous, and they lose some people along the way, including Beto, the young boy who befriended Luca on one of the train rides. He succumbs to a terrible asthma attack, and his death leaves everyone feeling even more exhausted, tired and let down. And despite Lorenzo's reassurance that he was not tracking them, Lydia learns this is a lie after he attacks Rebeca while they were resting before the last leg of their journey. Chacal is able to apprehend him, but Soledad takes the gun away from their coyote and shoots him in cold blood. When Lydia retrieves his cell phone, she sees that he has been informing Javier of her whereabouts the entire time she has been running, at least from the time that they run into him on one of their train rides and he recognized her photo.

Lydia, in a moment or bravery, video calls Javier and tellls him that it is over, that she has murdered his informant, and that it's time to let go, that his daughter's suicide was not her fault.

They finish the last leg of their journey, and they are able to begin their new life with the new family they have formed with the sisters, along with the cousin who paid for them to enter into the United States.

Honestly, I live so far north that news of the border, and the happenings in Mexico felt like an entirely different life. I was privileged, having been born in the United States, in a semi well-off family that it never occurred to me the hardships that migrants faced in trying to gain entry into my wonderful country. Reading this book really opened my eyes to those hardships, even more so, it made me understand it even better.

Each and every American should read this book. While it is fictional, in some aspects, it reads like a biography, like we're reading the actual words of a woman named Lydia who lost her entire family with the exception of her son to unspeakable gun violence at the hands of a cartel. Read it. Don't hesitate. Just read.

0 notes

writers-against-drug-cartels · 8 months

Text

Another journalist killed in Mexico amid rising cartel violence.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Another journalist was killed in Mexico on July 12, 2023, adding to a growing list of reporters who have lost their lives amid an intensifying drug war in the country, authorities and a press freedom organization said.

Nelson Matus was shot to death on the fringes of Acapulco in southwestern Mexico, police officials confirm. Matus had been the director of a local news organization, Lo Real de Guerrero, which covered the intensifying violence in the Mexican state of Guerrero. He had already survived an assassination attempt in 2019. Local authorities said they were investigating the killing, but many suspect the killers are well known by the authorities but no arrests have been made because they local authorities are on the payroll of the drug cartel that ordered the killing.

Matus’ death comes just a week after the grisly killing of another journalist in western Mexico, something the Committee to Protect Journalists said “underscores the crisis of deadly violence and impunity that continues to plague the Mexican press.”

The death illustrates a concerning uptick in the murders of reporters in Mexico and the toll the country’s intensifying drug war has taken on local newsrooms, which often report more microscopically on the violence. Matus’ newsroom is no exception.

For years, the seaside city of Acapulco was largely known for its beach resorts, but it has increasingly become a hub for narco violence. On the same day Matus was killed, the news organization published a story about authorities finding a dead body in a bag near a tourist beach in the city.

In the past five years alone, 52 journalists have been killed in Mexico. Last year, Mexico was one of the deadliest places in the world for journalists, second only to Ukraine. We all know who is responsible for the killings. It is the drug cartels who are active throughout Mexico. They are determined to silence those who speak out against them and they have found those willing to help within the government and police forces of the Mexican state of Guerrero.

0 notes

neyatimes · 10 months

Text

Another journalist killed in Mexico as country’s drug cartel violence intensifies

Another journalist was killed in Mexico on Saturday, adding to a growing list of reporters who have lost their lives amid an intensifying drug war in the country, authorities and a press freedom organization said. Nelson Matus was shot to death on the fringes of Acapulco in southwestern Mexico, officials and Article 19 confirmed. Matus had been the director of a local news organization, Lo Real…

View On WordPress

0 notes

ivanreycristo · 1 year

Text

..nunca había visto una cerveza Mexicana CORONA "0,0" ..

X cierto..apesar de q habre bebido cientos..solo tengo 5 recuerdos relacionada con ella:

1 la q me dio HUTCHENCE de INXS en la SALA DIVINO AQUALUNG el 14_6_93 q JUAN PABLO II estaba en EL ROCIO.

2 la q bebía días antes de la NOCHEBUENA 06 q vi a MARKY RAMONE [q entro en RAMONES en LP ROAD TO RUIN y se fotografió con FELIPE VI en Estadio MANZANA+eRES x la final de COPA DEL REY aunque en su web puso CULPA DEL REY] en sala LIVE [donde mi último concierto fue ver y fotografiarme en Abril 2018 con ex_cantante de IRON MAIDEN Blaze BAILEY q se lanzo en solitario con cd SILICON MESSIAH] viendo a los TRIBUTOS de GUNS N ROSES Y METALLICA como son GANSOS ROSAS Y METAL_MANIA al ver un cartel anunciador en la PUERTA DEL SOL, pues bebi solo CERVEZA xq me había ido de mi casa día de mi año 35 y tenía poco DINERO pero lo recuerdo xq me llamó CASANDRA SAINTE_MARIE DEL AGUA [a la q me reencontré trabajando en Tienda REAL MADRID del ESTADIO BERNABEU en 2013 tras fotografiarme a sus PUERTAS a CONTRA_LUZ con CLIFORD LUYK o padre del malogrado SERGIO al q me presentaron en disco AVE NOX y q jugo en los TORMENTA ROJA de la UNIVERSIDAD d ST JOHN en PKWAY UTOPIA de QUEENS_NY].. para la cena de NAVIDAD del curso de parados.

3 la q bebía en la playa de PROGRESO [YUCATAN_MEXICO] tras hacer una EXCURSION a CENOTES y a las SALINAS de AGUA ROJIZA [parecía SANGRE] donde mexicanos CALIBRE 50 grabaron MI SORPRESA FUISTE TU [ q empieza con "Ahora entiendo cuando dicen

Que los tiempos de Dios son perfectos

A pesar que tuve tantas decepciones

Lo agradezco

Y hasta siento que debo pedirle

Perdón al destino

Lo maldije tantas veces

Pero ahora todo tiene sentido]..pues tras darme una comilona junto a la piscina d RESTAURANT donde bebi CERVEZA VICTORIA..fui a la PLAYA pensando q era como un JODIDO JUBILADO con más de 200.000€ [de la herencia de mi padre] y mi vida no tiene sentido sino es una LOCURA jaja

4 la CERVEZA CORONA "LIGHT" [=LUZ] en el VUELO de TABAsCO a MEXICO DF donde al llegar al Hotel FIESTA AMERICANA [frente a la retirada estatua de COLON] leí su revista EMINNENTE con reportaje LA VOZ DE UN DEMONIO donde relacionaban los DESASTRES con la MUSICA y el SILENCIO..después [feb 2019] fui a REPRODUCIR mi visita a la ESCULTURA del LIBRO DEL APOCALIPSIS 1.3 q lo anuncia y que encontré de casualidad 20_11_08 [33 aniversario de MUERTE DE FRANCO]..y encontré un edificio en ESTADO DE DEMOLICION x el TERREMOTO DE SEP. 2017 [del q escapó JARABE DE PALO x Horas aunque le quedaban CONCIERTOS en el TEATRO ESPERANZA IRIS] en el cruce de calle VERACRUZ y calle ACAPULCO q era un CENTRO CULTURAL JUDIO [ALIANZA NIDJEL ISRAEL]

5 en ISLA MUJERES una LATA [lo q Dan las MUJERES cuando se acabó la PASION O SEXO y empieza a ser todo aburrido o cuestión de DINERO] q bebi en ISLAS MUJERES frente a un tipo con camiseta con lema WE LOVE TO SEE YOU WIN

youtube

#Youtube

0 notes

thegeekx · 1 year

Text

Mexico beachgoers at popular tourist area find 3 dead bodies with torture marks washed ashore

Beachgoers at a popular Mexican resort town were subjected to a stark reminder of Mexican cartel violence when dead bodies of tortured individuals washed up on the beach over the weekend. Visitors to Acapulco’s famed Playa Condesa made the discovery on Saturday afternoon when two bodies were found showing clear indications that they had been tortured, The Sun reported. One of the bodies was tied…

View On WordPress

0 notes

latintanaranja · 1 year

Photo

Cartel original de Aeromexico (Aeronaves de México) de 1959, una joya del diseño 💎 😍 ✈️ 🇲🇽 “Fly to MEXICO” 69 x 93 cm Offset Litográfico 1959 DISPONIBLE #ElArteNoPara . . . . . #poster #cartel #vintage #acapulco #mexico #aeromexico #diseño #design #avion #aviacion #galeria #tintanaranja #condesa #cdmx #art #arte #diseñografico #grafica #artepsicodelico #graphicdesign #graphicdesigner #aeromexico #aeronavesdemexico #ilustracion #ilustration #memorabilia #travelposters #airlineposter #aviationposter (en Tinta Naranja) https://www.instagram.com/p/CmesU99puvE/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

1 note · View note

morethanonepage · 4 years

Text

i’m angery

i know i’m mostly a star wars killjoy on tumblr dot com lately but allow me to SCREAM about my latest nemesis, a book called “American Dirt”:

Lydia Quixano Pérez lives in the Mexican city of Acapulco. She runs a bookstore. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while there are cracks beginning to show in Acapulco because of the drug cartels, her life is, by and large, fairly comfortable.

Even though she knows they’ll never sell, Lydia stocks some of her all-time favorite books in her store. And then one day a man enters the shop to browse and comes up to the register with a few books he would like to buy―two of them her favorites. Javier is erudite. He is charming. And, unbeknownst to Lydia, he is the jefe of the newest drug cartel that has gruesomely taken over the city. When Lydia’s husband’s tell-all profile of Javier is published, none of their lives will ever be the same.

Forced to flee, Lydia and eight-year-old Luca soon find themselves miles and worlds away from their comfortable middle-class existence. Instantly transformed into migrants, Lydia and Luca ride la bestia―trains that make their way north toward the United States, which is the only place Javier’s reach doesn’t extend. As they join the countless people trying to reach el norte, Lydia soon sees that everyone is running from something. But what exactly are they running to?

Written by one Jeanine Cummins, who has Puerto Rican ancestry but grew up in the MD suburbs (as I did, tbf) and in 2015 considered herself white (”I am white...in every practical way, my family is mostly white.” [cw for sexual assault and murder at the link]), everything I read about this book has begun to drive me to madness.

Recommended by the Mary Sue book club (the source of the above summary), it has since been retracted bc a) its sucks and b) THEY DIDN’T READ IT BEFORE PUTTING IT ON THE BOOK CLUB LIST (”I try to read most, if not all, of the books I recommend for the Book Club because I truly do love reading, and I want to make sure that if I suggest someone grab something, it’s something I can say I liked. When I was looking up two books to fill out the list, one of them was American Dirt. I saw that it had received a lot of positive press from Stephen King, Rumaan Alam, Don Winslow, Sandra Cisneros, and other literary news outlets including Oprah’s Book Club. It seemed like the type of literary fiction that’s always good for a book club read. I was mistaken.“)

Myriam Gurba, at Tropics of Meta, describes being asked to review it for a feminist magazine, and then being told her review was too negative to publish. It included gems such as:

Cummins bombards with clichés from the get-go. Chapter One starts with assassins opening fire on a quinceañera, a fifteenth birthday party, a scene one can easily imagine President Donald Trump breathlessly conjuring at a Midwestern rally, and while Cummins’ executioners are certainly animated, their humanity remains shallow. By categorizing these characters as “the modern bogeymen of urban Mexico,” she flattens them. By invoking monsters with English names and European lineages, Cummins reveals the color of her intended audience: white. Mexicans don’t fear the bogeyman. We fear his very distant cousin, el cucuy.

[...]

With their family annihilated by narcotraffickers, mother and son embark on a refugees’ journey. They head north, or, as Cummins’ often writes, to “el norte,” and italicized Spanish words like carajo, mijo, and amigo litter the prose, yielding the same effect as store-bought taco seasoning.

[...] Lydia’s husband, a journalist, describes her as one of the “smartest” women he’s ever known. Nonetheless, she behaves in gallingly naïve and stupid ways. Despite being an intellectually engaged woman, and the wife of a reporter whose beat is narcotrafficking, Lydia experiences shock after shock when confronted with the realities of México, realities that would not shock a Mexican.

It shocks Lydia to learn that the mysterious and wealthy patron who frequents her bookstore flanked by “[thuggish]” bodyguards is the capo of the local drug cartel! It shocks Lydia to learn that some central Americans migrate to the United States by foot! It shocks Lydia to learn that men rape female migrants en route to the United States! It shocks Lydia to learn that Mexico City has an ice-skating rink! (This “surprise” gave me a good chuckle: I learned to ice skate in México.) That Lydia is so shocked by her own country’s day-to-day realities, realities that I’m intimate with as a Chicana living en el norte, gives the impression that Lydia might not be…a credible Mexican. In fact, she perceives her own country through the eyes of a pearl-clutching American tourist.

Parul Sehgal, at the NYT, digs into the fact that while the motives of this book may be unimpeachable (tho: are they??), the writing itself is...perhaps less so:

I found myself flinching as I read, not from the perils the characters face, but from the mauling the English language receives. Lydia’s expression “is one Luca has never seen before, and he fears it might be permanent. It’s as if seven fishermen have cast their hooks into her from different directions and they’re all pulling at once. One from the eyebrow, one from the lip, another at the nose, one from the cheek.” Yes, of course. That expression.

Sehgal also highlights my favorite line I’ve heard about in this book: “when Lydia finds she is unable to pray, ‘she believes it’s a divine kindness. Like a government furlough, God has deferred her nonessential agencies.’” The Raised in the DMV Suburbs just JUMPED OUT, didn’t it, Jeanine? But like legit, why on earth would a Mexican bookstore lady’s frame of reference ever be A GOVERNMENT FURLOUGH and NONESSENTIAL AGENCIES. followers, i just about died.

David J. Schmidt, at The Blue Nib, calls out other inaccuracies and stereotypes:

It is worth dwelling on the character of Javier for a moment. A “drinking game” could be created based on all the Latin American stereotypes he personifies. Javier is dapper, yet dangerous. He is charming, yet mysterious. He wears a white guayabera, a shirt the author describes as “more suitable for Sunday Mass than a regular workday.” (Untrue—this is a casual garment, more suitable for a love affair in a Fabio-bedecked romance novel.)

This quintessential “Latin lover” shows up at Lydia’s bookstore and speaks to her in a tone significantly different from the other characters of American Dirt. I must emphasise, Javier’s dialogue does not reflect the normal speech patterns of Mexico, but perfectly reflects U.S. stereotypes. The only way to properly read Javier’s lines is through the most gross of caricatures.

One should imagine the husky voice of Antonio Banderas, speaking at his most sensual and Spanishy. Any character he has played in English will do, although it is clear that Javier was ideally written for the voice of Puss in Boots. When Lydia asks if Javier reads English, the dapper narco responds:

“I try, yes […] My English isn’t fluent, but it’s close. And this story is so delicate.”

[...]

The cultural inaccuracies of American Dirt run deep, right down to the language. Throughout her book, Cummins shows confusion regarding the grammatical genders in Spanish. Most notably, she baptises the drug kingpin Javier with the nickname La Lechuza. It is difficult to imagine a macho, womanizing capo using a feminine-gendered noun as his moniker. Would a hardened mafia boss call himself “The Princess of Compton” or “The Belle of Belfast”?

Cummins got a seven figure advance for this. A SEVEN FIGURE ADVANCE. She “wished someone slightly browner than me would write it,” but she did it, and her team is throwing around the fact that her husband’s previously undocumented status as some sort of justification without mentioning that he’s white & Irish.

Also, there’s this news:

Imperative Entertainment, the production banner behind the Clint Eastwood hit The Mule, has acquired the rights to American Dirt, the Mexican migrant drama novel by Jeanine Cummins.

Charles Leavitt, the scribe who penned the Leonardo DiCaprio drama Blood Diamond, has been tapped to write the adaptation, which will be produced by Imperative’s Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas.

Charles Leavitt is a white guy who, most recently, wrote the Warcraft movie. So, that’s going to end well.

I’ll leave you with this other gem from Gurba (from her essay about it, “Pendeja, You Ain’t Steinbeck “):

Susan Sontag wrote that “[a] sensibility (as distinct from an idea) is one of the hardest things to talk about” and with this challenge in mind, I assert that American Dirt fails to convey any Mexican sensibility. It aspires to be Día de los Muertos but it, instead, embodies Halloween. The proof rests in the novel’s painful humorlessness. Mexicans have over a hundred nicknames for death, most of them are playful because death is our favorite playmate, and Octavio Paz explained our unique relationship with la muerte when he wrote, “The Mexican…is familiar with death. [He] jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it. It is one of his favorite toys and his most steadfast love.” Cummins’ failure to approach death with appropriate curiosity, and humility, is what makes American Dirt a perfect read for your local self-righteous gringa book club.

so idk, The Mary Sue, maybe it should stay on your Book Club list after all. (Oh wait: as of this writing, it still is.)

#american dirt #sorry for the long post but as i said #i'm angery #long post #(also TBF: i think Schmidt dings the book for having a character named luca)#(my cousin named her son that)#(and it's not like mexicans can NEVER have foreign names [i mean -- SCHMIDT -- etc]#but it's a thing that maybe requires some explanation even if it is 'well she liked the italian version better'#(oh also you can be white and latinx)#(i think more accurately jeanine is white passing but)#(that's her deal to id with)#anyway this will be made into a movie staring whatshername from Knives Out and MAYBE diego luna as the dead hubby #but realistically oscar isaac bc they love killing him off

13 notes · View notes

alecxmaneo · 4 years

Text

Maneo Task: 006

· What is your muse’s full name and do they have any nicknames? Full name: Alexandre Jisoo Guerrero Moon Nicknames: Alec, AJ

· What do they look like? Alec is about 6’0 tall with tan skin and steel grey eyes. He has shaggy hair dyed a dark silver. While he is rather lithe and lean, he’s not scrawny by any means. He has a lot of lean muscle and the subtle traces of his muscles can still be seen under his clothes, even when he doesn’t dress to show them off. He has a tattoo on his inner right wrist that is indicative of his father’s pack, a birthright mark given to all of age wolves when they’ve earned their place and role within the hierarchy. Alec was given his mark when he turned 15. (ex. – 1, 2)

· Do they have any distinguishing features such as scars, unique birthmarks, etc.? Beyond the mark on his wrist, Alec has a vertical scar on the left side of his abdomen from a years old stab wound.

· What are your muse’s friends and family like? Who do they usually surround themselves with? Alec’s entire biological family was killed, but when his parents and brother were still alive, they were a very close-knit family unit. His father, despite being the one to get his sons involved with the cartel, did his best to protect them and train them to handle anything. He was very close to his younger brother and was very protective of him, which is a trait he continues to display with his friends. His mother was a loving, free-spirited woman who inspired a passion for food and cooking. Alec tends to surround himself with people he gets along with well and those he can provide for. Without a family of his own, he’s built up his chosen family with members of Venor he works with and has connected with another descendant of his father’s pack.

· Who would you consider the closest person to your muse? Probably Suwei. With Suwei, he has a connection to his father’s pack and is extremely protective over her. He spends an absurd amount of time worrying over her well-being and does everything he can to provide a familial bond for her.

· Where was your character born and what was their living situation growing up there? Alec was born in Acapulco, Mexico. His early childhood was pleasant and he spent majority of his time in the kitchen with his mother or running amuck in his father’s auto repair garage with his brother playing hide and seek, or pretending to fixing the cars. He was blissfully ignorant of his father’s involvement with the cartel until he was about 15. That’s when he realized what was really going on and when his father pulled him into fold. They lived modestly with the money his father made from his shop (and from embezzling money from the cartel), but never splurged. It was a comfortable life until his father’s greed got the best of him and resulted in the death of both parents.

· What is your muse’s biggest fear and does anyone know? If so, who, and if not, why not? One of Alec’s biggest fears is his past catching up with him. His father and brother’s mistakes led to their deaths and while Alec wasn’t directly involved in the embezzlement, he took what was left of it all and ran with it. He made a few mistakes along the way and he’s aware that while he covered his tracks to the best of his ability, both the cartel and the yakuza aren’t his biggest fans. He hasn’t told anyone this, primarily because he wants to bury the past and keep his slate clean in Seoul.

· Has your muse ever fallen in love before? If so, with who? Did it end well? Alec has never been in love. He’s only had a handful of hookups over the years, but hasn’t found anyone he’s connected with enough to say he’s in love.

· What would you find in your muse’s refrigerator right now? He loves to cook, mostly Mexican food, though there’s probably a small jar of Kimchi in there somewhere. There’s plenty of homemade leftovers and fresh ingredients for spontaneous meals. He’s stocked up on bottles of Corona with a couple limes in the bottom drawer, with a stray orange or two. There’s a carton of eggs, maybe a half carton of milk and a 12-pack of Pepsi. He also has a ridiculous number of takeout boxes, most of them half eaten and filled with Chinese leftovers.

· What does your muse usually wear? Alec generally lives his life in jeans and loose cotton shirts, both crew and V-neck. Working in the auto shop, he doesn’t have any use for fancy, expensive clothes given how dirty he tends to get and how worn out the fabric ends up. He doesn’t bother splurging when he knows he’s going to ruin most of his wardrobe. He tends to stick with darker colors like navy, charcoal grey and black because it hides the dirt and grease better and if it doesn’t wash out, it’s still not all that visible so he can get away with it. He sticks with sneakers, generally Adidas or Nike and leans more towards comfort over style. When he’s not working in the garage or working on his skills in the Venor training room, he’ll get a little more dressed up, but only if he’s specifically going out or spending time with someone. At home, he tends to just wear sweatpants or basketball shorts and if he gets cold, he’ll throw on a zip up sweater.

· What is your muse’s strongest memory that they carry around? Alec remembers vividly the sight of his parents’ bodies in the living room of his childhood home. It was an awful scene to witness and as much as he tries not to remember, it’s still his strongest memory to this day.

#maneotask:006

1 note · View note