Tucson Weekly: Into Juárez (March 19

Into Juárez

Charles Bowden, Noam Chomsky And Eduardo Galeano Take On NAFTA In The Streets Of Mexico.
By Mona Mort
Juárez: The Laboratory of Our Future, by Charles Bowden (Aperture Foundation). Cloth, $35.
MID-WAY THROUGH Juárez, a full-page, full-color photograph depicts the sun-mummified body of a woman--raped, murdered, mouth open and teeth showing--in a Juárez park. Charles Bowden writes: "She is screaming and screaming and screaming." Opposite the photograph, Bowden's prose continues to a full page, positioned such that the photo will continue to face the reader for as long as possible, screaming.
Books The man who took this photograph, Juárez photographer Jaime Bailleres, believes it will never be published because of political or social repercussions. In the end, he agrees to sell it to Bowden, who keeps the photograph in a file folder on his desk, and looks at it periodically to stay the course of his mission: to publish this photo and a collection of nearly 100 others, all by unknown Mexican street photographers.
Bowden convinced the Aperture Foundation in New York to showcase the work of 13 such photographers from the city of Juárez, México. They work for $50 to $100 a week, provide their own cameras and transportation, and often face beatings, torture, and even murder. According to Bowden, such a large group of photographers constitutes "a defensive tactic," giving them political ammunition and safety in numbers. Bowden spends time on their beats, conveying their courage in his own words. The result is a powerful combination of language and image: Juárez: The Laboratory of Our Future.
Juárez, where nearly two million people live in economic and social depression, is by Bowden's account "just 30 feet from El Paso. People try to speculate what the future will be. They don't have to--they can come to Juárez and touch it: some 300 American factories, paying people $3 a day. Here is your future."
Most of the workers live in dense settlements, or colonias, "built" of cardboard shacks. They breathe dirty air, drink contaminated water, and are the objects of crime and violence by gangs. The book's subtitle derives from Bowden's convincing argument that Juárez is a laboratory for experiments about possible futures; possible outcomes in the war between the haves and have-nots.
He writes: "In Juárez, the future is over 30 years old"; a widespread drop in real wages and poor living standards that Bowden (and others) contend will soon afflict the United States.
The text of Juárez is a raw, hard-hitting account of the human cost of economic policies allowed to persist in border towns; conditions worsened since NAFTA's passage in July 1992.
The author approaches this latest project with the same urgent style as his previous 15 books, relating events from the lives of people in Juárez--the photographers, friends, acquaintances--as an ongoing struggle demanding attention--and action.
The book grew out of Bowden's December 1996 article in Harper's; where several of the photos were previously published; as well as in a July 1997 New York Times photo spread. Like most of the photographs, the stories he documents are grim.
Bowden's polemic is accompanied by Noam Chomsky's preface, originally published in The Nation (March 1993), in which NAFTA is lambasted as a plot by international economic powers--the "masters of mankind," quoting Adam Smith--to increase their wealth while diminishing the lives of workers. Chomsky's essay is a fact-filled historical account of how NAFTA came to be, and its opposition by Mexican workers and international labor experts.
The afterword, "To Be Like Them," is an excerpt from We Say No, by Uruguayan novelist Eduardo Galeano. His essay raises the question of whether the Third World can become the First World. His answer is no: If it were to try, he contends, the planet would die ecologically. Galeano points out that by the end of the century, México City and São Paolo will be the largest cities in the world. Sans catalytic converters for their leaded-gasoline automobile engines, they'll also signal the beginning of global asphyxiation for the human race.
Printed in color, this harsh documentary of murder, torture, rape, hunger and hopelessness was taken with film rationed by Juárez newspapers. Several of the photographs are superimposed with quotes from Bob Dylan, Edward Weston and others, which can be more distracting than illuminating. Otherwise, the layout and fine finish make for a consonant visual and tactile experience.
Juárez is a difficult book to get through; the photos are hard to look at, and Bowden's unyielding prose hammers away at our collective conscience. Yet, it remains a successful and important exposé of human nature: both the immediate and that which is "safely" concealed behind government propaganda.
Charles Bowden signs copies of Juárez at a reception from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, March 21, at The Book Mark, 5001 E. Speedway. For more information, call 881-6350.

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