The content enthusiastically reviews “The Mosquito Coast” series on Apple TV, highlighting a family’s perilous journey to an off-grid jungle. It also praises The Prodigy, noting their significant influence on electronic live performances despite the loss of member Keith Flint. The author urges recognition of their groundbreaking contributions to music.
Moctezuma II was the last great Aztec king or ruler of the Mexica people in today’s modern day Mexico. His reign saw the arrival of the conquistadors from Spain and it was Hernan Cortés who most famously defeated this strange kingdom in the New World and took hold of ht…
View More Review: Moctezuma and The Aztecs – by Elisenda Vila Llonch
I have previously read a lot of material on World War 2 codebreakers and the likes of Alan Turing and their critical work against Enigma and the invention of modern computing during that period. Of course, codebreaking and cryptography is not a new science and has been a critical part…
View More Review: Before Bletchley Park – The Codebreakers of The First World War – by Paul Gannon
Roberto Saviano is the Italian Salman Rushdie. After writing his exposé on the Neapolitan mafia that is the subject of this book, Gomorrah, Saviano had serious death threats from organised crime and had to go into hiding and lives under security protection to this day. He is only a young…
View More Review: Gommorah – Italy’s Other Mafia – by Roberto Saviano
This is the third Grillo installment that I have tackled and Ioan is an author who is a gritty investigative journalist who tends to put himself into quite dangerous situations in order to explore very controversial and often violent global subjects. Following on from Grillo’s groundbreaking work on Mexican cartels,…
View More Review: Blood, Gun, Money – How America Arms Gangs and Cartels – by Ioan Grillo
Vine Line is a new Wez G podcast featuring songs that I am regularly enjoying at home. It will be an eclectic accessible mix of pop, dance, rock and any other genre I can think to throw in there. Enjoy and please share and spread the love x Wez G…
View More Wez G – Vine Line – Episode 2
Los narcocorridos son baladas que narran las hazañas de los bandidos en el narcotráfico, muy populares en México y América Latina. Un DJ británico ha producido un show dedicado a este género musical. El contenido incluye un tracklist destacado y enlaces a episodios anteriores y críticas sobre el tema.
View More Wez G – Narcocorridos – Volumen 2This is an explosive book, real revelations from a sicario or hitman for the Juarez cartel in Mexico. In the murky world of narcotics enforcers are employed by the cartels to assassinate and extort owed money from victims. This sicario was trained as a policeman with this training funded by…
View More Review: El Sicario – Confessions of a Cartel Hit Man – by Molly Molloy and Charles Bowden
This is the second of Ioan Grillo’s books that I have read and I found this volume equally as good as my first encounter with this talented British journalist. Gangster Warlords focuses on 4 separate crime gangs across the Americas. For each group we identify leaders, politics, often brutal and…
View More Review: Gangster Warlords – Drug Dollars, Killing Fields and the New Politics of Latin America – by Ioan GrilloThis Mexican author, Elmer Mendoza, is about as vibrant a writer of fiction that I have encountered since Hemingway. A truly unique flowing style that is amazing to digest. The hero of the book is policeman Edgar ‘Lefty’ Mendieta. He is a drunken womaniser and the tale weaves in his…
View More Review: Silver Bullets – by Élmer Mendoza
When you see the title ‘The Cartel’ you might immediately imagine a book about Colombian or Mexican drug lords. Yet, this book covers a 30 year history of a homegrown cartel, based in Liverpool. Back in the 1970s a pioneering Fred the Rat grouped together his criminal comrades and they…
View More Review: The Cartel – The Inside Story of Britain’s Biggest Drugs Gang – by Graham Johnson
The author is exploring the impact of local culture on the artistic output of Narcoculture in the form of literature and art in two specific par excellence Narco cities in Latin America. We are introduced to the Culichis of Culiacán in Mexicos Sinaloa and they can be contrasted with the…
View More Review: Narrating Narcos: Culiacán and Medellín – by Gabriela Polit Dueñas
Elijah Wald’s work explores narcoculture through Narcocorridos, a music form detailing the lives of drug lords in Mexico and Latin America. He shares personal travels, insights into the corrido communities, and the genre’s cultural significance. The book merges adventure with important societal issues, making it essential for enthusiasts of Mexican culture and music.
View More Review: Narcocorrido: A Journey into the Music of Drugs, Guns, and Guerrillas – by Elijah Wald
This is a narconovela, a Spanish language work of fiction set in the narco world of drug trafficking. The young Mexican author, Juan Pablo Villalobos presents ‘ Party in the Rabbit Burrow’, a short, fast-moving look at life behind the palace facade of a Mexican drug kingpin, Yolcaut, through the…
View More Review: Fiesta en la Madriguera – by Juan Pablo VillalobosThis is one of the most remarkable books I have ever read, a first witness account of some of the most important world events of the first half of the twentieth century, a rich period for revolutionary events and the author, Victor Serge, a Belgian born Russian, is perfectly poised…
View More Review: Memoirs of a Revolutionary – by Victor Serge