Oswaldo Zavala – författare

Through political and cultural analysis of representations of the so-called war on drugs, Oswaldo Zavala makes the case that the very terms we use to describe drug traffickers are a constructed subterfuge for the real narcos: politicians, corporations, and the military. Though Donald Trump's incendiary comments and monstrous policies on the border reveal the character of a deeply depraved leader, state violence on both sides of the border is nothing new. Immigration has endured as a prevailing news topic, but it is a fixture of modern society in the neoliberal era; the future will be one of exile brought on by state violence and the plundering of our natural resources to sate capitalist greed.Yet, the realities of violence in Mexico and along the border are obscured by the books, films, and TV series we consume. In truth, works like Sicario, The Queen of the South, and Narcos hide Mexico's political realities. Along with these examples, Zavala discusses Charles Bowden, 2666 by Roberto BolaÑo, and other important Latin American writers as examples of works that do capture the realities of the drug war.Drug Cartels Do Not Exist will be useful for journalists, political scientists, philosophers, and writers of any kind who wish to break down the constructed barriers—physical and mental—created by those in power around the reality of the Mexican drug trade.

Through political and cultural analysis of representations of the so-called war on drugs, Oswaldo Zavala makes the case that the very terms we use to describe drug traffickers are a constructed subterfuge for the real narcos: politicians, corporations, and the military. Though Donald Trump's incendiary comments and monstrous policies on the border reveal the character of a deeply depraved leader, state violence on both sides of the border is nothing new. Immigration has endured as a prevailing news topic, but it is a fixture of modern society in the neoliberal era; the future will be one of exile brought on by state violence and the plundering of our natural resources to sate capitalist greed.Yet, the realities of violence in Mexico and along the border are obscured by the books, films, and TV series we consume. In truth, works like Sicario, The Queen of the South, and Narcos hide Mexico's political realities. Along with these examples, Zavala discusses Charles Bowden, 2666 by Roberto BolaÑo, and other important Latin American writers as examples of works that do capture the realities of the drug war.Drug Cartels Do Not Exist will be useful for journalists, political scientists, philosophers, and writers of any kind who wish to break down the constructed barriers—physical and mental—created by those in power around the reality of the Mexican drug trade.

La obra de Horacio Castellanos Moya es un referente crucial no sólo para imaginar el pasado y el presente centroamericano, sino para examinar las implicaciones políticas que derivan de la escritura literaria en español en la era neoliberal. El presente volumen reúne el trabajo crítico de 14 académicos de Latinoamérica, Europa y Estados Unidos que abordan la narrativa moyana en sus principales libros a la par de su itinerario biográfico e intelectual: la novela seminal El asco y su celebrada diatriba en contra de El Salvador; las representaciones del militarismo, la guerrilla y la posguerra en novelas como Insensatez, La diáspora y El arma en el hombre; la compleja saga de la familia Aragón, esa genealogía que en más de un modo inscribe el violento proceso histórico de los distintos países de la región. En cada uno de estos ensayos se analiza la tensión irresuelto entre la escritura de ficción, la experiencia de vida del autor, las relaciones del poder geopolítico y la (im)posibilidad de agencia e intervención desde el proyecto literario de Castellanos Moya. Buscamos en un principio cuestionar los límites críticos de su obra en un momento en apariencia post-político, pero al hurgar en los confines de su poética ante lo político, procuramos también señalar las instancias de libertad radical que desde su intervención discursiva articula la ficción. Son éstas, entonces, excursiones hacia la doble vía de la tiranía y la libertad de la ficción de Horacio Castellanos Moya.~The work of Horacio Castellanos Moya is a crucial reference not only to imagine Central America's past and present, but also to examine the political implications that derive from literary writing in Spanish in the neoliberal era. This volume brings together the critical work of 14 academics from Latin America, Europe and the United States who address Moya's narrative in his main books along with his biographical and intellectual itinerary: the seminal novel El asco and its celebrated diatribe against El Salvador; the representations of militarism, the guerrilla and the postwar period in novels such as Insansatez, La diaspora and El arma en el hombre; the complex saga of the Aragón family, a genealogy that in more than one way inscribes the violent historical process of the different countries of the region. Each of these essays analyses the unresolved tension between fiction writing, the author's life experience, geopolitical power relations and the (im)possibility of agency and intervention in the literary project of Castellanos Moya. At first, we seek to question the critical limits of his work in an apparently post-political moment, but by delving into the confines of his poetics from a political perspective, we also try to point out the instances of radical freedom that articulates fiction from his discourse. These are, then, excursions towards the double path of tyranny and freedom of Horacio Castellanos Moya's fiction.