Luis Sigfrido Gomez Campos
Blood, is announced as (Advance editorial) a novel written by Irma Zermeno, what it is, they say, about the development of violence in our country; “Through fascinating characters, among whom is the writer’s own father, he leads us deeply into the harsh Mexico in which violence and machismo converge with fragility and vulnerable emotions”.
“A novel constructed with care and rigor with the aim of allowing us to understand the paradoxes and contradictions of who we are as Mexicans and, above all, as human beings.”
The first thing that came to mind with the publicity of this novel is that reality itself gives us every day the dose of blood necessary to satisfy our curiosity; I also thought, prejudiced, that it was possibly a writer who was trying to take advantage of moments of terrifying violence to hit a sales hit with a bloody narconovela. I did not know that the writer has a long history in the field of literature in our country. I sinned out of ignorance.
In addition, those of us who claim to like reading must always keep in mind that literature is literature and that it is not a flier or a cheap soap opera that generally attracts the attention of the simplest people or those not initiated in reading. the pleasure of reading literature for pure pleasure.
Well yes, I confess that I was wrong; but I had the opportunity to give it a little peek at the beginning of the novel and managed to remain deeply interested in that story of Jalisco males and, surely, a lot of blood, but everything makes me think that it is a magnificent novel.
I have a serious prejudice against the narco-stories in the corridos, in the televised soap operas and even in the informative magazines that give an account of the messes on the red pages of the newspapers because it gives me the impression that all of this contributes to the cultural feedback of violence; that is to say, that it is a question of pure apology of the crime.
I already know that the specialists say that I am wrong, that these stories that are massively disseminated by the information media are not generators of the violence that prevails in the social environment; but it is the other way around, that the violence that exists in reality provokes the taste for producing, listening to and reading stories of crimes and terror. But I am short on understanding and I keep thinking that everything happens in a circular way, that there is a perpetual feedback loop where reality and narco corridos and cheap television stories influence each other permanently.
All last week we lived the informative nightmare of the massacre in a school in the United States, perpetrated by a young American national of Latino origin, Salvador Raimundo Ramos, who was barely 18 years old. Before heading to the primary school to kill 19 children and two teachers, he shot his grandmother in the face. The testimonies of those who knew him refer that he was a person with an apparently normal behavior.
This massacre in a school in North America revived the discussion about the ease with which weapons are sold in that country, but it seems that Texans are not willing to modify their laws on the sale of large caliber weapons because that violates a right granted by their own constitution.
Many Mexicans say that the gringos are simply crazy, but it seems that we only see the speck in the other’s eye because, although our regulatory laws are supposedly stricter with permits to carry weapons, in practice There is no control over their acquisition, supposedly intended for the exclusive use of the army.
The vast majority of high-caliber weapons used in Mexico come from the United States and are acquired clandestinely without the authorities supposedly having the capacity to stop both their entry into the country and their sale.
And regarding the massacres, we are not far behind. Unfortunately we are living through a period of bloody violence and apparently we do not have strategies or the ability to quell this terrifying crime wave.
I agree that the causes that supposedly give rise to violence must be combated, but it is not enough. The state is required to ensure internal peace
so that the citizens of Mexico can fully develop their capacities and all the human potential of which they are capable.
Social peace is the logical presupposition necessary for the development of the country. Without social peace, all the intellectual and creative capacities of human beings are inhibited. Social peace is as important as freedom and democracy.
When I read that the writer Irma Zermeño was publishing her novel “Blood” under the seal of the Textofilia publishing house, I thought that we were up to our necks in blood, but it is wise to reconsider and after having read only a few of its pages I dare to recommend it. widely. Good writers give themselves away in the first lines.
