This episode of The Dig is brought to you by the listeners who support us on Patreon and by University

of California Press. One title we think dig listeners will like is A History of Infamy, Crime, Truth,

and Justice in Mexico by Pablo Piccato. A history of infamy explores the broken nexus between crime,

justice, and truth in mid-20th century

Mexico. Faced with the violence and impunity that defined politics, policing, and the judicial

system in post-revolutionary times, Mexicans sought truth and justice outside state institutions.

During this period, criminal news and crime fiction flourished. Civil

society's search for truth and justice led, paradoxically, to the normalization of extrajudicial

violence and neglect of the rights of victims. As Pablo Pacado demonstrates, ordinary

people in Mexico have made crime and punishment central concerns of the

public sphere during the last century. This book offers critical historical context for readers

who want to understand how the Mexican state and society respond to violence as today's drug war

unleashes horrific bloodshed nationwide.

A history of infamy, crime, truth, and justice in Mexico by Pablo Pacato.

Out now from University of California Press. Welcome to The Dig, a podcast from Jacobin Magazine.

My name is Daniel Denver, and I'm broadcasting from Providence, Rhode Island.

With Trump, Mexico is the symbol of so many things that are wrong with the United States,

and, more to the point, their source.

Concretely, he has actually suggested that the Mexican government has outsmarted the U.S.

by purposefully sending its least desirable citizens, criminals, and offloading them

across the border. Trump's racist absurdities, however, draw from a long history of American ignorance about

and bigotries toward Mexico and Mexicans, blank canvases upon which all manner of nightmares,

...