Realidades Mexicanas La Muerte Vive

Filmmaker Lourdes Portillo sees her mission as "channeling the hopes and dreams of a people." Clearly, political commitment has inspired her choice of subjects. With themes ranging from state repression to AIDS, Portillo's films include: Después del Terremoto, the Oscar-nominated Las Madres: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, La Ofrenda: The Days of the Dead, The Devil Never Sleeps, and Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena. The first study of Portillo and her films, this collection is collaborative and multifaceted in approach, emphasizing aspects of authorial creativity, audience reception, and production processes typically hidden from view. Rosa Linda Fregoso, the volume editor, has organized the book into three parts: interviews (by Fregoso and Kathleen Newman and B. Ruby Rich); critical perspectives (essays by Fregoso, Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano, Sylvie Thouard, Norma Iglesias, and Barbara McBane); and production materials (screenplays, script notes, storyboards, etc.). This innovative collection provides "inside" information on the challenges of making independent films. By describing the production constraints Portillo has surmounted, Fregoso deepens our appreciation of this gifted filmmaker's life, her struggles, and the evolution of her art.

Primer libro dedicado al análisis de las manifestaciones culturales de la inmigración mexicana en Estados Unidos: arte, literatura, cine, canciones, humor. Muestra cómo los inmigrantes mexicanos han sido y son pintados, y cómo los artistas, escritores e intelectuales, chicanos y otros han utilizado los medios artísticos para protestar contra el injusto tratamiento que reciben por parte de las autoridades de Estados Unidos.

The definitive account of the disappearance of forty-three Mexican students On September 26, 2014, a party of students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College were en route to a protest when intercepted by local police. A confrontation ensued. Come the morning, the students were nowhere to be found. The crime that had transpired and the resultant cover-up brought the profound depths of corruption in the Mexican government and police force—as well as the vulnerability of ordinary Mexicans—into stark relief. Investigative reporter Anabel Hernández reconstructs the terrible events of that night and its aftermath, giving us the most complete picture available. Her sources are unparalleled. In researching this book, she secured access to internal government documents that have not been made public and to surveillance footage the government has tried to hide and destroy. Hernández demolishes the Mexican state’s official version of events, which the Peña Nieto government cynically dubbed the “historic truth.” As her research shows, state officials at all levels, from police and prosecutors to the upper echelons of government, conspired to put together a fake case, concealing and manipulating evidence, and arresting and torturing dozens of “suspects,” procuring forced confessions to back up the official lie. By following the role of the various Mexican state agencies through the events in such remarkable detail, A Massacre in Mexico shows with exacting precision precisely who is responsible for this monumental crime and who needs to be held accountable.

Letras Hispánicas en la Gran Pantalla is an innovative textbook for advanced students of Hispanic studies, which merges the studies of canonical literary works and their film adaptions. Students are guided through key literary masterpieces spanning from the Renaissance to the present day while, at the same time, interpreting their film versions. This parallel approach encourages students to develop their analytical skills as they master the terminology of contemporary studies in literature and cinema. Exploring complete works by both male and female authors and directors from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Spain, Letras Hispánicas en la Gran Pantalla allows students discover the astounding diversity of the Spanish-speaking world, in a unique and engaging way.