Drug Wars: from Pablo Escobar to the Mara Salvatrucha to Iguala Mass Student Kidnapping

This course will study the ways in which Latin American Narcos are represented in feature films, documentaries, essays, and novels. We will choose two regions and times: Pablo Escobar's Colombia (1949-1993) and current Mexico (1990-2015), including the mass students kidnappings in Iguala, México, 2014. Films: Sins of my Father (Entel, 2009); Pablo's Hippos (Lawrence Elman, 2010); True Story of Killing Pablo, David Keane (2002), Sumas y restas (Víctor Gaviria, 2003); La vida loca (Poveda, 2009), Sin nombre (Cary Fukunaga, 2009), El velador (Almada, 2011); La jaula de oro (Quemada-Díez, 2013); La bestia (Pedro Ultreras, 2010); Cartel Land (Heineman, 2015); The Missing 43 (Vice, 2015). Books: Alejandra Inzunza, José Luis Pardo, Pablo Ferri: Narco America, de los Andes a Manhattan (2015); Sergio González Rodríguez: El hombre sin cabeza (2010); Rafael Ramírez Heredia: La Mara (2004).