Book Reviews by Joseph Towle
The rights of indigenous peoples have been at the forefront of human rights debates in recent dec... more The rights of indigenous peoples have been at the forefront of human rights debates in recent decades. In the framework of the United Nations system, increased awareness of the need to address the rights of indigenous peoples is evidenced by the creation of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations in 1982 and the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in 2000 and the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007. The attempt to remedy the abuse, racism, and poverty experienced by indigenous peoples throughout the Americas is not a simple task and is long overdue. Despite the renewed interest in the protection and promotion of indigenous rights around the globe, indigenous populations continue to experience political, social, cultural, and economic oppression. However, as James C. Scott (1990: 45) writes, "relations of domination are, at the same time, relations of resistance." Thus, dominated indigenous populations resist their oppression. Because of the enormous diversity of indigenous peoples across Latin America, it is safe to say that the relationships between dominant and subordinate actors, between different subordinate groups, and within subordinate groups are multiple and varied.
Papers by Joseph Towle
Latin American Perspectives, 2013
Sunny Places for Shady People: El post-policiaco mexicano, 2018
The slaying of Mexican journalist/photographer Rubén Espinosa on July 31, 2015 prompted a wave of... more The slaying of Mexican journalist/photographer Rubén Espinosa on July 31, 2015 prompted a wave of popular response by civil society demanding justice for the murder and disappearance of journalists in Mexico. Ruben’s story is all too familiar; it is a story told daily in newspapers across the country. However, contemporary authors such as Jorge Zepeda Patterson, Imanol Caneyada, Martín Solares, and Juan Pablo Villalobos are turning stories like Ruben’s into literature, telling a deeper, detailed, human story. Drawing on their works I argue that the Mexican post-policiaco has become a manifestation of Mexican society’s struggles with social and political chaos by reasserting Glen Close’s position in which, “the novela negra continues to thrive as a model for narrative reflection on the new urban violence” (56). Through action, suspense, violence, and “the rejection of the private investigator in favor of a journalist protagonist” (Close 151) these writers imagine possibilities of a better world and their work thus denounces present societal conditions and critiques institutions and people that are at the service of maintaining the status quo. Where Latin American crime fiction seemed to be known for suspending the solution to the crime, Mexican authors are becoming more explicit; in step with the activists and protestors in the streets, they make it clear: FUE EL ESTADO. The increase of voices calling for an end to impunity and Berna González Harbour’s assertion that, “la novela negra es la otra cara del periodismo” perhaps gives hope that the social fabric is mending, but the future looks bleak in a country where 98% of murder cases in 2012 went unsolved.
The Savvy Guerrilla: How the Literature of Subcomandante Marcos Funds the Zapatista Rebellion, 2017
“El complot mongol ayer y hoy: Una perspectiva desde los EE. UU.” El complot anticanónico: Ensayo... more “El complot mongol ayer y hoy: Una perspectiva desde los EE. UU.” El complot anticanónico: Ensayos sobre Rafael Bernal. México, D.F.: Tierra Adentro (CONACULTA), 2015. 53-75.
Books by Joseph Towle
Sunny Places for Shady People: El post-policiaco mexicano, 2018
Esta obra reúne una colección de ensayos que estudian la narrativa post-policiaca mexicana en su ... more Esta obra reúne una colección de ensayos que estudian la narrativa post-policiaca mexicana en su transición del neopoliciaco, al adaptar las fórmulas del género, alejarse de sus estructuras normativas y ser un sitio donde se intersectan varios géneros y subgéneros.
Sunny Places for Shady People: El post-policiaco mexicano, 2018
Esta obra reúne una colección de ensayos que estudian la narrativa post-policiaca mexicana en su ... more Esta obra reúne una colección de ensayos que estudian la narrativa post-policiaca mexicana en su transición del neopoliciaco, al adaptar las fórmulas del género, alejarse de sus estructuras normativas y ser un sitio donde se intersectan varios géneros y subgéneros.
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Book Reviews by Joseph Towle
Papers by Joseph Towle
Books by Joseph Towle