Grieving
​​Cristina Rivera Garza

Photo Credit: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

​Written by MacArthur Foundation fellow Cristina Rivera Garza, Grieving is a riveting collection of essays lamenting the longstanding history of femicide in Mexico, notably in the Golden Quadrilateral—Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Sonora, and Durango. The harrowing events transpiring in Mexico are nothing new. Drug trafficking has been co-opted in Mexico by counterinsurgents who have been supported by the government and paid off by drug cartels. In turn, drug cartels were given free rein by the government, including killing innocent civilians. The flip side of the horror and violence is a country in a deep state of mourning—grieving. As Rivera Garza eloquently puts it, “where suffering lies, so too, does grieving: the deep sorrow that binds within emotional communities willing and able to face life anew, even if it means . . . radically revising and altering the world we share.”
 
The author brilliantly shows a nation in crisis since the 1970s. Not only are women being murdered, border residents live in fear. Public spaces have been radically altered. Yet, in the face of fear and violence, there are acts of resistance. Artist Alejandro Santiago erected 2,501 life-sized statues of migrants in Oaxaca representing those migrants who died crossing over the U.S.-Mexico border up to the time when he began his own migration. By employing local artisans, Santiago has inverted the migration narrative in Oaxaca. The book succeeds in shedding light on the dynamics of state power, patriarchy, and violence, allowing femicide to exist and the counterresponse “tragic agency” to emerge.
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Mac Arthur Fellow, Cristina Rivera Garza is the author of three works of fiction, including No One Will See My Cry, The Iliac Crest, and The Taiga Syndrome. She is a professor of Hispanic Studies at the University of Houston.

Grieving is a publication by The Feminist Press at CUNY. Click here to purchase. 
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Reviewed by
Marian Perales
​​11/16/2020

Marian Perales, an editor and historian, received her M.A. in Chicanx history from the Claremont Graduate University. She is an avid reader and book reviewer of BIPOC histories and literature. 
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