Tag Archives: Mexico

11/5/21

Viscera & Violence

In reading excerpts of Cristina Rivera Garza’s Grieving, I was drawn to the essay entitled “The Visceraless State”. Admittedly, I had to look up the word “visceraless” or “viscera” to ensure I was understanding Rivera Garza’s commentary properly. Viscera, by definition, refers to the internal organs in the main cavities of the body, like the heart, lungs, liver, pancreas, and intestines. This got me thinking more critically about the content of “The Visceraless State”. In titling her essay in this manner, Rivera Garza is alluding to the fact that Mexico is a body, but it lacks the necessary parts to allow it to function properly. Mexico is operating without heart, without lungs, without its liver. Anatomically, the heart pumps blood throughout the body, allowing your body to function as intended. Your lungs provide oxygen to your brain, allowing it to work properly, and your liver helps filter toxins from your body and keep you healthy. If Mexico is a visceraless state, it lacks everything it needs to function properly, and therefore doesn’t.

Senorita Signatory’s medical distress being unanswered and unassisted is an allegory for the function of the country of Mexico. The government cannot function properly due to its corruption and it being overwhelmed by the so-called war on drugs, that it lacks its ability to care for its population properly- its human body population. Without heart, a government which believes in its ability to solve this crisis, without lungs, the tools which can combat the guerilla warfare that is endemic to the country, and without liver, the dismantling of toxic and dangerous entities that prevent the body of Mexico from governing as it should, the body is doomed to be a visceraless state. This analogy is so profound, and I have to wonder if I was the only one who didn’t catch the full effect of the title at first. Like her other excerpts, Rivera Garza’s masterful choice of words leads her to comment on not only a single entity, but a collective state. Rivera Garza’s sister’s femicide is deeply personal to her, but is also widespread and relatable. Senorita Signatory’s medical wishes for her organs is intimately her own, but also a symptom is a more widely-spread issue.

11/4/21

The War on Children

The horrors of mutilated dead bodies on display in a city are real and severe. I lived in Mexico though 2005-2016. Personally, I had never witnessed any of these bodies. However, some of my friends had. They never really explained it or spoke about it, but you could tell their demeanor had changed. Stories of children being kidnapped and ransomed by the cartel were also fairly common. No one I knew, but friends of friends of friends. The threat was real, but I never really understood the extent of it.

There were some moments in which it became clearer. I would see military vehicles often on my way to school. They served as a reminder of the war on drugs. Even 10-year-olds knew there was a high likely hood the government officials were on their payroll. Being a kid I didn’t pay much attention to it outside of when it directly affected me or those I knew. My parents did a good job of sheltering me from it. 

Reading Rivera’s depiction of the horrors and terrorism of the cartel-run state, my perspective has been broadened. I haven’t really heard stories with any first-person perspective or with vivid imagery until this reading. To a degree, I resented the lack of freedom I had as a kid. It was difficult for me to understand why I couldn’t go to the Oxxo (the dominant corner store chain in the country) a few blocks away from my compound with my friends. The claimant open-end my eyes as to the fear my parents had given the situation. The poem oozes the sorrow and grief the mother must feel and I have grown thankful for my parent’s protection of me. Poems can help make sense of your own life.