X-ray of a crime in the name of progress

Abstract

At the beginning of October 2013, the most recent work of the historian, novelist and activist Paco Ignacio Taibo II, "Yaquis, History of a people's war and genocide in Mexico" came to light. In his now classic style, the author recounts more than 40 years of resistance by a people against "progress" that, as Walter Benjamin said, has the shape of a destructive hurricane that throws the angel of history forward, while their feet lie the bodies of the victims. The Porfirian pax for the Yaquis had nothing peaceful, the progress proclaimed by the Porfirian oligarchy only meant dispossession and death for the Yaqui. Taibo II presents the two sides of the same process, death and dispossession was the cause-consequence of the construction of great fortunes, the sweat and blood of the subordinates raised the palaces of the Porfirian oligarchy. "Yaquis ..." is a book that is easy to read, but cannot be read without pain.