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El Monstruo: Dread And Redemption In Mexico City (2009)

by John Ross(Favorite Author)

3.75 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1568584245 (ISBN13: 9781568584249)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Nation Books

review 1: I am fortunate to have met John Ross less than a year before he died in 2011 at a book talk for El Monstruo in Chicago. He used a cane as a result of injuries he sustained at the hands of Israeli settlers while supporting Palestinian farmers. Ross is the kind of champion of the stories of ordinary people surviving in the face of unbelievable odds. Like the struggle of the Palestinians, Ross writes of Mexico City residents’ daily fight to survive. He writes an epic “history from below” of Mexico City, “The Monster,” by interspersing conversations with acquaintances who are homeless, café owners, pot dealers, and street vendors with an impressive array of traditional historical sources. He explains that “it is my neighbors who have persevered here in El Cent... morero down the years who have most vitally informed this manuscript, rolled back the dark corners of what came before, and solved some of the mysteries the past invokes” (457-458). Despite Ross’ best efforts, his message of resilience is at times threatened by a creeping sense of hopelessness, caused by the overwhelming forces against progress that he catalogs. Nonetheless, he is clear that this book is a defense of place, and it is an impressive one. With a keen sense of dark humor and a steadfastly subversive spirit Ross recounts the environmental threat and rampant crime of El Monstruo and the corrupt political class that exacerbates this precarious place. I appreciate his use of hyperbole, because there’s no way of conveying the intensity of the place without it. The severity of political party animosity is scandalous, and Ross thankfully chooses mockery instead of gravity to explain it, making the guilty actors out to be telenovela characters, and making this book eminently readable. The principal threat to its readability is the difficult task of keeping track of the numerous actors he covers (there’s no shortage of corrupt politicians to lance!). The most recent history (he begins the book with pre-colonial history) is the most riveting, because it is Mexican history that he has lived since he moved there in 1985: from Carlos Slim’s land grabs in the historic district to the popular occupation of the Federal Plaza in support of OBrador’s bid for presidency; from the rise of the Zapatistas to the Monster City’s unwelcome visit from Giuliani.
review 2: It's the ultimate insider's guide, and it does help to have spent time in the city, particularly as a "political tourist," and to be as fascinated with it as Ross was, to enjoy this book. His jazzy, irreverent voice isn't your graduate history professor's, and that's a plus. To those of us who met or knew John Ross, local San Francisco legend that he was, just about every line puts him right back there in front of you. But every great city deserves a history like this--one that gives you not just the vital statistics and the goings-on at the top, but a sense of daily life down the years, sights, sounds and smells -- and its own John Ross to write it. less

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