History of Infamy

Pablo Piccato teaches Latin American history at Columbia University. He studied at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and the University of Texas at Austin. His books include City of Suspects: Crime in Mexico City, 1900-1931 and The Tyranny of Opinion: Honor and the Construction of the Mexican Public Sphere.

• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INTRODUCTION: A NATIONAL HISTORY OF INFAMY PART ONE: SPACES 1 * FROM TRANSPARENCY TO DARKNESS: JUSTICE AND PUBLICITY IN THE MIRROR OF CRIMINAL JURIES 2 * A LOOK AT THE CRIME SCENE: THE NOTA ROJA AND THE PUBLIC PURSUIT OF TRUTH PART TWO: ACTORS 3 * LOST DETECTIVES: POLICEMEN, TORTURE, LEY FUGA 4 * HORRIBLE CRIMES: MURDERERS AS AUTHORS 5 * CAREFUL GUYS: PISTOLEROS AND THE BUSINESS OF POLITICS PART THREE: FICTIONS 6 * OUR TIMES, OUR PERSPECTIVES: THE EMERGENCE OF MEXICAN CRIME FICTION 7 * OUR MODELS OF DREAD: CRIME AS REVENGE, JUSTICE, AND ART CONCLUSION: TRYING TO KEEP OUR EYES OPEN APPENDIX: QUANTITATIVE EVIDENCE ABOUT CRIME IN MEXICO IN THE LAST CENTURY ABBREVIATIONS FOR ARCHIVAL SOURCES NOTES INDEX PICCATO

"A History of Infamy makes two significant contributions to the historiography of modern Mexico: 1) that impunity was not an obstacle to modernization; and 2) that the state only punished those who did not have the means to circumvent justice (263). In shifting the gaze towards how people of the past debated and processed these realities in the public sphere, Piccato reminds us that Mexicans have been confronting and challenging authority for more than a century. He has also shown us that there is a redemptive quality in understanding the past in order to come to terms with the challenging present. This book is a must read for scholars of Latin America, but will surely be of interest to those studying crime and punishment, literature, the press, and political violence."