Call the Mothers

Searching for Mexico's Disappeared in the War on Drugs Volume 58
1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-0-520-31458-0
Verlag: University of California Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 58, 264 Seiten, Trade Paperback, Format (B × H): 137 mm x 213 mm, Gewicht: 322 g

Reihe: California Series in Public Anthropology

A gripping portrait of the relentless women taking missing persons, kidnapping, and extortion cases into their own hands—and building a movement for one another.

In this riveting exploration of the lives of mothers whose children are among the 100,000 disappeared in Mexico’s war on drugs, Shaylih Muehlmann shows how families have mobilized on the ground to get answers and justice. It is often mothers who confront government corruption, indifference, and incompetence by taking on the responsibilities of searching for missing persons and dealing with kidnapping and extortion cases.

In bringing the voices of these women to the fore, Muehlmann demonstrates how the war on drugs affects everyday life in Mexico and how these activists have become detectives, forensic specialists, and even negotiators with drug traffickers. Call the Mothers provides a unique look at a grassroots movement that draws from the symbolic power of motherhood to build a network of collectives that redefine traditional gender roles and challenge injustice and impunity.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Muehlmann, Shaylih

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Historische & Regionale Volkskunde
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gender Studies, Geschlechtersoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Studien zu einzelnen Ländern und Gebieten

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents

List of Illustrations

Introduction

1. “They Started Off as a Busload of Victims”

2. Until We Find Them

3. “Call the Mothers, Not the Police”

4. A Rage So Fierce She Didn’t Notice Her Feet

5. “Without a Body There Is No Crime”

Conclusions: Desert Colors

Acknowledgments

Notes

Works Cited

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Shaylih Muehlmann is Professor of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. She is the author of Where the River Ends: Contested Indigeneity in the Mexican Colorado Delta and When I Wear My Alligator Boots: Narco-Culture in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands.