The Cellar - 2666 vs 2010

"In Juarez drug war, priest is on front lines," by Nick Valencia (CNN).

Quote:

A bloody war between Mexico's drug cartels has changed every facet of life in places such as Juarez, where death figures compare to those in war-ravaged Baghdad or Kabul. Even the untouchable aura of clerics in the world's second-biggest Catholic country is being challenged.

In 2009, more than 2,575 people were homicide victims of organized crime. As of Monday, 230 killings had been recorded in Juarez this year, state attorney general's office spokesman Arturo Sandoval told CNN.

Ciudad Juarez is the city that Roberto Bolaño called Santa Teresa in his novel 2666. It's one of those beautiful sprawling books, sort of about a lot of things (German literature, love, serial murders, WW2, Mexico) and really, at its root -- this is a glaring oversimplification, and one that describes most good books -- just a few beautiful thoughts about life.

On some level, maybe, the book was his stab at spreading awareness about the odd, awful state of things in a city he apparently loved: I, certainly, would care much less (not at all) but for having read the book. Yet, in 2003, when Bolaño died, the situation in Juarez/Santa Teresa was nowhere near where it is now: they just had an ongoing, unsolved problem with women dropping dead.