Description
Book SynopsisDrug Lords, Cowboys, and Desperadoes examines how historical archetypes in violent narratives on the Mexican American frontier have resulted in political discourse that feeds back into real violence.
The drug battles, outlaw culture, and violence that permeate the U.S.-Mexican frontier serve as scenery and motivation for a wide swath of North American culture. In this innovative study, Rafael Acosta Morales ties the pride that many communities felt for heroic tales of banditry and rebels to the darker repercussions of the violence inflicted by the representatives of the law or the state. Narratives on bandits, cowboys, and desperadoes promise redistribution, regeneration, and community, but they often bring about the very opposite of those goals. This paradox is at the heart of Acosta Morales's book.
Drug Lords, Cowboys, and Desperadoes examines the relationship between affect, narrative, and violence surrounding three historical archetypessocial ban
Trade Review
“Drug Lords, Cowboys, and Desperadoes is a theoretically engaged tour-de-force that offers new interpretations of classic and subcultural texts depicting the borderlands.” —Jason Ruiz, author of Americans in the Treasure House
“Drug Lords, Cowboys, and Desperadoes touches on very important themes for the recent political and social conditions of Mexico. It also calls attention to the discourses that historically have produced a sense of entitlement and racial superiority in the U.S. and the manner in which these have manifested themselves against the other, specifically, against Mexicans.” —Fernando Fabio Sánchez, author of Artful Assassins
Table of ContentsIntroduction. Affective Assemblages: People And The Stories We Love
1. Drug Lords: Capital And Social Banditry
2: Cowboys: Weaponized Trauma
3. Desperadoes: Illegal Representativity
Afterword. To Dream The Stories Untold
