The Disappeared
The story of September 26, 2014, the day 43 Mexican students went missing.
Mexico
The Drug Runners
The Tarahumara became famous for running incredibly long distances. In recent years, cartels have exploited their talents by forcing them to ferry drugs into America. Now they’re running for their lives.
Losing Gloria
After their mother was deported to Mexico, the Marin siblings faced an impossible choice: Stay or go.
Excerpts from 'Bones in the Desert'
From the Translator’s Note:
Just over two weeks ago, on April 3, the renowned Mexican writer and investigative journalist Sergio González Rodríguez unexpectedly passed away from a heart attack at age 67. [His book] Bones in the Desert is a far-reaching investigation into the still-unsolved murders of hundreds of women and girls in the communities surrounding Mexico’s Ciudad Júarez, on the US border with El Paso, Texas. In the years since its publication in 2002, Bones in the Desert has left an indelible imprint on the modern literature of the Americas, both through its own merits and its foundational influence on Roberto Bolaño’s 2666. In crafting a fictionalized version of Ciudad Júarez, Bolaño collaborated directly with González Rodríguez, relying on him for substantial “technical help” in answering questions about the nature of the murders, and eventually including him as a character in the novel.
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The Twilight Zone
An excess of people and an excess of desert.
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No Longer a Girl
The hallmarks that would come to characterize the official narrative surrounding the serial murders were already being established.
The Believers: Cult Murders in Mexico
The American students hopped across the border for a night of partying in Matamoros. One didn’t return and was found later in a shack with 14 other corpses.
Unclaimed
On a mysterious migrant in a San Diego hospital bed, and the thousands of families who hope that he’s theirs.
The Legend of Elden Kidd, America’s Most Dedicated, Most Creative People Smuggler
A decade in the life of America’s wiliest coyote.
The Devil is Loose
Paramedics pick up the pieces on the Texas-Mexico border.
The Architect Who Became a Diamond
The archive of Mexican architect Luis Barragán has been hidden away for decades. Then an artist decided to make a performance of getting it back.
Where the Ghost Bird Sings by the Poison Springs
The author investigates the massive wildlife die-off in the Salton Sea by rafting from its tributaries in Mexico.
Brooklyn Bound
The fight to extradite El Chapo.
Coyote Bros
How three friends and a team of frat brothers made a fortune smuggling people along the most heavily patrolled stretch of highway in Texas.
El Chapo Speaks
A secret meeting, and short Q&A, with the drug lord while he was still on the lam.
Devils, Deals and the DEA
How agents took down Mexico’s most vicious drug cartel and, in the process, gave El Chapo the opportunity to create an empire.
What #Pobrezafilia Means for Mexico
Mexicans on social media have their own hashtag for images of naked – and plainly impoverished – women.
Who Killed Rubén Espinosa and Nadia Vera?
“Whenever news of yet another horrifying murder or massacre somewhere in the country breaks, my friends and I often find ourselves asking if Mexico has 'hit bottom' yet... But some crimes move or frighten us in ways we hadn’t anticipated, and the Colonia Narvarte massacre is one of those.”
The New Abolitionists
The anti-human trafficking stings conducted by Operation Underground Railroad are flashy, exciting, camera-ready. Whether or not they truly help victims is another question.
The Hunt for El Chapo
How the world’s most notorious drug lord was captured.
Previously: Patrick Radden Keefe on the Longform Podcast.
Harry Devert Took a Wrong Turn in Mexico
The last trip of a dedicated wanderer.
Jodorowsky On God, Anti-Semitism, And The Uses of Poetry
“What I do is not magical realism. I do realistic magic. Look, whenever someone does something new, people have to compare it with things they already know. So even if you innovate, you end up being connected to the past. When I began making movies people linked me to Fellini or Buñuel. Now new filmmakers are called ‘jodorowskian.’”
Ghosts of Iguala
Investigating what Mexico’s government really knows about disappearance of dozens of students.
A Hundred Women
Why a decades-long string of murders near the Mexican border has gone unsolved.
The Man Without A Mask
How Cassandro, who wrestles in drag, became a star Mexican luchadore.
The Unforgotten
The people who go missing while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, and the people who attempt to identify their remains.
Who Will Watch the Watchers?
An investigation into violence against Mexican citizens by the U.S. Border Patrol.
