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Dining with the Devil: Identity Formations in Juarez, Mexico

This article analyzes popular narratives surrounding the theme of drug lords in the Mexican border city of Juarez and their multifaceted social, ideological, and material effects. This analysis takes into consideration the historical context of eruptions of violence that Juarez has endured in the last few years. Complex formations of the Mexican identity are now being reformulated in hierarchical, gendered, and racialized identities, which project the very strong and powerful social frictions currently emerging from complex socioeconomic factors resulting in mass poverty and migration. These elements are evinced in the narco-narratives within their violent contexts. However, violence in Juarez must not be interpreted as upsurges outside the control of the state, but rather as byproducts of conflict within it (see Das and Poole 2004). Thus, on the border, Juarez becomes a central site, not a periphery, in which economic and political forces materialize in the middle of complex social dynamics.