Cover; When I Wear My Alligator Boots; Title; Copyright; Dedication; CONTENTS; List of Illustrations; Acknowledgments; Introduction: Life at the Edges of the War on Drugs; 1. Narco-Wives, Beauty Queens, and a Mother's Bribes; 2. "When I Wear My Alligator Boots"; 3. "A Narco without a Corrido Doesn't Exist"; 4. The View from Cruz's Throne; 5. Moving the Money When the Bank Accounts Get Full; 6. "Now They Wear Tennis Shoes"; Conclusion: Puro pa'delante Mexico; Notes; References; Index
Summary
When I Wear My Alligator Boots examines how the lives of dispossessed men and women are affected by the rise of narcotrafficking along the U.S.-Mexico border. In particular, the book explores a crucial tension at the heart of the ""war on drugs"": despite the violence and suffering brought on by drug cartels, for the rural poor in Mexico's north, narcotrafficking offers one of the few paths to upward mobility and is a powerful source of cultural meanings and local prestige. In the borderlands, traces of the drug trade are everywhere: from gang violence in cities to drug addiction