Towards a Philosophy of Narco Violence in Mexico

From Damien Hirst to D.H. Lawrence, every outsider who has spent
any amount of time thinking about Mexico has invariably been drawn
towards and intrigued by the question of death in this country. While
contemplating Mexico and its relationship with death, Aldous Huxley
rightly asked: ‘Why in Mexico is death a congenial and stimulating
theme?’ (Huxley 1984: 31).
From the pre-Columbian period, marked by human sacrifices,
through the war of independence against European colonialism to the
present day, Mexico is conspicuous for its excesses of violence. When
one thinks of Mexico one thinks of mayhem and death. The sociocul-
tural milieu of violence and its ever-consuming appetite to take life have
been an undeniable reality throughout Mexican history. This process,
one could argue, is at its most terrifying in contemporary Mexico.
Killing, or the process of taking life, is the central narrative of this
book. It covers a wide array of events, undertakings and processes sur-
rounding the act of killing. The questions that it probes concern the
premature and violent deaths instigated by various constituencies.