Border Killers: Neoliberalism, Necropolitics, and Mexican Masculinity

Border Killers explores how recent Mexican creators have reported, analyzed, distended, and refracted the increasingly violent world of neoliberal Mexico, particularly its versions of masculinity, using cultural narratives to counter sensationalistic and stereotyped media depictions of border residents as criminals. It argues that contemporary Mexico is home to a form of necropolitical masculinity that has flourished in the neoliberal era and made the exercise of death both profitable and necessary for the functioning of Mexicos state-cartel-corporate governance matrix.

Format: Hardback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 31 May 2024
Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Border Killers: A Critical Analysis of Neoliberal Mexico's Violent World
Neoliberal Mexico has become a breeding ground for extreme violence, with its distorted versions of masculinity playing a significant role. In her book, "Border Killers," Elizabeth Villalobos explores how recent Mexican creators have analyzed, refracted, and expanded upon this violent landscape. By drawing on the insights of artists, writers, and filmmakers, Villalobos offers a path for understanding and critiquing the very real border violence in contemporary Mexico.

Villalobos focuses on representations of "border killers" in literature, film, and theater. She develops a metaphor of "maquilization" to describe the mass-production of masculine violence as a result of neoliberalism. The killer is depicted as an interchangeable cog in a societal factory of violence, whose work is to produce dead bodies. By turning to cultural narratives, Villalobos seeks to counter the sensationalistic and stereotyped media depictions of border residents as criminals. Instead, she indicts the Mexican state and the global economic system for producing agents of violence.

Focusing on both Mexico's northern and southern borders, "Border Killers" uses Achille Mbembes concept of necropolitics and various theories of masculinity to argue that contemporary Mexico is home to a form of necropolitical masculinity that has flourished in the neoliberal era and made the exercise of death both profitable and necessary for the functioning of Mexico's state-cartel-corporate governance matrix.

Villalobos' book is a critical analysis of neoliberal Mexico's violent world. It offers a path for understanding and critiquing the very real border violence in contemporary Mexico. By drawing on the insights of artists, writers, and filmmakers, Villalobos provides a unique perspective on the issue and challenges the sensationalistic and stereotyped media depictions of border residents as criminals.

Weight: 540g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780816553068