When Alfredo Corchado talks about freedom of the press, he's thinking about something with heaver implications than whether the local county commission has an ill-advised backroom meeting. For journalists covering the political and social scene in Mexico, press freedom is literally a life and death issue.
That's why he threw back a shot of tequila as he kicked off the Lannan Foundation's speaker series this week at The Lensic. The series continues with speakers including Noam Chomsky and Max Blulmenthal.
Once part of a 13-member press corp for The Dallas Morning News in Mexico, Corchado is now the paper's only staffer in its Mexico bureau. He's recently published a book, part personal memoir and part journalism, called Midnight in Mexico: A Reporter's Journey Through a Country's Descent into Darkness.
"It took a lot of music and a lot
of tequila to write this book," he tells the audience, delivering his laugh
line.
It wasn't until he got to the part about the death threat from the cartel that he actually drank the liquid courage on the stage.
A child of the border region who was born in Durango, Mexico, he then moved with his family to California and later El Paso as a young man. Now living in Mexico again and writing for the American newspaper, Corchado says he's comfortable straddling the two nations.
"We are the same geography: one blood, two countries, dancing out of step. Two souls still clashing," he says, reading a passage from the book. He adds later, "I'm not complete unless I'm telling stories in two countries."
While he's covered the narco wars, pervasive violence and the rise of power for the Zetas cartel, the Juarez murders, poverty, several presidents with varying degrees of corruption, and a class system with laws that "only work for the rich," to name just a few topics, Corchado says he's most interested in the stories of hope from the land he loves.
Still, Corchado—who was able to get on a plane when his life appeared in danger—knows that life for reporters in the US is very different from those in parts of Mexico. Storytellers here, he says, must take seriously their obligation to deliver the news about what's happening south of the border. Too many journalists there have died trying. Reporters with "more protection," he says, have a responsibility "to make sure their plight remains fresh in our minds."
"We need to do a lot more to explain to American readers the reach of the cartel, I think it's a disservice to Mexico and it's a disservice to our colleagues to just say 'that corrupt little country south of the border.' It is not that easy. It is not that way," he says. "I'm also often encouraged by colleagues and by Mexicans themselves who will say 'yes, the United States is to blame. The United States has a huge huge blame. If the United States were to legalize drugs tomorrow, this would really change.'"
Corchado also makes it part of his mission to ensure that murdered and missing journalists aren’t reduced to simple numbers. Here’s a list of some of their names, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists:
Gregorio Jiménez de la Cruz, Notisur and Liberal del Sur
Between February 5 and 11, 2014, in Las Choapas, Veracruz, Mexico
Adrián Silva Moreno, Freelance
November 14, 2012, in Tehuacán, Mexico
Regina Martínez Pérez, Proceso
April 28, 2012, in Xalapa, Mexico
Maria Elizabeth Macías Castro, Freelance
September 24, 2011, in an area near Nuevo Laredo, Mexico
Luis Emanuel Ruiz Carrillo, La Prensa
March 25, 2011, in Monterrey, Mexico
Noel López Olguín, Freelance
March 2011, in Chinameca, Veracruz, Mexico
Carlos Alberto Guajardo Romero, Expreso Matamoros
November 5, 2010, in Matamoros, Mexico
Luis Carlos Santiago, El Diario
September 16, 2010, in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico
Valentín Valdés Espinosa, Zócalo de Saltillo
January 8, 2010, in Saltillo, Mexico
Bladimir Antuna García, El Tiempo de Durango
November 2, 2009, in Durango, Mexico
Norberto Miranda Madrid, Radio Visión
September 23, 2009, in Nuevo Casas Grandes, Mexico
Eliseo Barrón Hernández, La Opinión
May 25, 2009, in Gómez Palacio, Mexico
Armando Rodríguez Carreón, El Diario de Ciudad Juárez
November 13, 2008, in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico
Alejandro Zenón Fonseca Estrada, EXA FM
September 24, 2008, in Villahermosa, Mexico
Amado Ramírez Dillanes, Televisa and Radiorama
April 6, 2007, in Acapulco, Mexico
Rodolfo Rincón Taracena, Tabasco Hoy
January 20, 2007, in Villahermosa, Mexico
Roberto Marcos García, Testimonio and Alarma
November 21, 2006, in Mandinga y Matoza, Mexico
Bradley Will, freelance
October 27, 2006, in Santa Lucía del Camino, Mexico
Dolores Guadalupe García Escamilla, Stereo 91
April 16, 2005, in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico
Gregorio Rodríguez Hernández, El Debate
November 28, 2004, in Escuinapa, Mexico
Francisco Arratia Saldierna, freelance
August 31, 2004, in Matamoros , Mexico
Francisco Javier Ortiz Franco, Zeta
June 22, 2004, in Tijuana, Mexico
José Luis Ortega Mata, Semanario de Ojinaga
February 19, 2001, in Ojinaga, Mexico
Philip True, San Antonio Express-News
December 15, 1998, in Jalisco, Mexico
Luis Mario García Rodríguez, La Tarde
February 12, 1998, in Mexico City, Mexico
Víctor Hernández Martínez, Como
July 26, 1997, in Mexico City, Mexico
Benjamín Flores González, La Prensa
July 15, 1997, in San Luis Río Colorado, Mexico
Jesús Abel Bueno León, 7 Días
May 22, 1997, in Chilpancingo, Mexico
Ruperto Armenta Gerardo, El Regional
February 5, 1995, in Guasave, Mexico
Jorge Martín Dorantes, El Crucero
June 6, 1994, in Morelos, Mexico
Santa Fe Reporter