Week 7: Vocabulary

by Meaghan Doyle

abated
to decrease in force or intensity

anarchic
lacking order, regularity, or definiteness

antagonism
opposition of a conflicting force, tendency, or principle

aversion
a feeling of repugnance toward something with a desire to avoid or turn from it

berserk
frenzied, crazed

cassocks
a close-fitting ankle-length garment worn especially in Roman Catholic and Anglican churches by the clergy and by laypersons assisting in services

chilango
Mexico, slang, from Mexico City. Often used derogatorily by those living outside the capital

colonia
neighborhoods in Mexican cities, which have no jurisdictional autonomy or representation

compadre
a close friend

craniocrebral
involving both cranium and brain

guaco
vine-like Central and South American, and West Indian climbing plants, reputed to have curative powers

hyoid
a U-shaped bone or complex of bones that is situated between the base of the tongue and the larynx and that supports the tongue, the larynx, and their muscles

insolent
insultingly contemptuous in speech or conduct

litany
a resonant or repetitive chant

macabre
having death as a subject

parochial
of or relating to a church parish

reprisals
a retaliatory act

sacristy
a room in a church where sacred vessels and vestments are kept and where the clergy vests

scourge
a cause of wide or great affliction

tumefaction
an action or process of swelling or becoming tumorous

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Matt, March 12th 2010 | Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in 2666 Group Read

Week 7: Locations

by Sara Corona Goldstein

pp. 353-404

Colonia Las Flores —the body of Esperanza Gamaz Saldana is found here in January 1993; the first of the victims to be counted. (p. 353)

Colonia Mancera — Luisa Celina Vazquez is killed here at the end of January, 1993. (p. 354)

Calle El Arroyo (between Colinia Cuidad Nueva and Colonia Morelos)— in April 1993, a knife sharpener discovers a badly beaten woman and calls the police. She dies before they can help her. (p.356)

A dump between Colonia Las Flores and General Sepulveda industrial park — another woman’s body is found in May 1993. (p. 358)

Calle Jazmi­n in Colonia Carranza — Guadalupe Rojas is killed outside her apartment here in May 1993. (p. 359)

Cerro Estrella —the body of the last dead woman in May 1993 is found here. Police Chief Pedro Negrete visits the site alone. (p. 360)

The church of San Rafael on Calle Patriotas Mexicanos – the church desecrator appears here at the end of May 1993. (p. 361)

The church of San Tadeo in Colonia Kino – the church desecrator appears again here. (p. 365)

The church of Santa Catalina in Colonia Lomas del Toro – another church desecration happens here. (p. 367)

The church of Nuestro Señor Jesucristo in Colonia Reforma – the Penitent goes beserk here a few days later. (p. 368)

El Chile (illegal dump)—the body of Emilia Mena Mena is found here. (p. 372)

Ciudad Guzman —Emilia Mena Mena’s boyfriend was suspected of fleeing to his uncle’s house here. (p. 373)

Morelos Preparatory School — the janitor finds another woman’s body here. (p. 373)

Colonia Maytorena — Margarita López Santos’ body is found here in June 1993 after being missing for 40 days. (p. 375).

Mexico City —Sergio Gonzales writes for La Razón, a newspaper based here. (p. 376)

Colonia Michoacan — Elvira Campos lives here. (p. 383)

Villaviciosa — Pedro Negrete travels here to hire someone (Lalo Cura) for his friend Pedro Rengifo. (p. 384)

Colonia Lindavista — another dead woman is found in September 1993. (p. 389)

Lomas de Poniente — Feliciano José Sandoval, alleged killer of Gabriela Morón, was from here. (p. 390)

Arsenio Farrell industrial park – Marta Navales Gómez was found here in October 1993. (p. 391)

Francisco I School, near Colonia Álamos – a Salvadorean immigrant finds the body of Andrea Pacheco Martínez here in November. (p. 392)

Colonia Morelos – Ernesto Luis Castillo Jiménez is found wandering here after he murders his mother on December 20, 1993. (p. 393)

Colonia Madero – while Pedro Rengifo’s wife is visiting a friend here, Lalo Cura is involved in a shoot-out with two gunmen. (p. 394)

El Ajo, a bar off the Nogales highway—the first dead woman of 1994 is found here. (p. 399)

Paquita Avendaño in Hermosilla — Nati Gordillo and Rubí Campos are locked up here after being accused of the muder of Leticia Contreras Zamudio. (p. 401)

Colonia Veracruz – Penélope Méndez Becerra’s family lived here. (p. 403)

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Matt, March 12th 2010 | Tags: , , , , ,
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Week 7: Tidbits

Sometimes the only way to digest this book is in tiny chunks.

Throughout this section we get mentions of many of the colonias in Santa Teresa. Colonias usually have their own postal code, but are in not involved in municipal governance. The term barrio is more prevalent in the U.S. than in Mexico.

page 360: “He remembered that his son, who was studying in Phoenix, had once told him that plastic bags took hundreds, maybe thousands of years to disintegrate.” If this is May, 1993, then maybe those bags will be mostly disintegrated by say 2666?

page 372:

The dump didn’t have a formal name, because it wasn’t supposed to be there, but it had an informal name: it was called El Chile. During the day there wasn’t a soul to be seen in El Chile or the surrounding fields soon to be swallowed up by the dump. At night those who had nothing or less than nothing ventured out. In Mexico City they call them teporochos, but a teporocho is a survivor, a cynic and a humorist, compared to the human beings who swarmed alone or in pairs around El Chile.

Another name for these trash-pickers, unique to Mexico, is pepenadores. Teporocho is much more derogatory: it implies a homeless alcoholic, or a drunk layabout. What do you think?

This is really the first section where we start to see talk of “Indians” or native culture in and around the city of Santa Teresa. None of the critics are Mexicans, Amalfitano is from Spain, Fate is from the US, Archimboldi is not Mexican, only the crimes and the criminals are native to the land. Perhaps this section of the novel finally gives us a look at the “real” Santa Teresa. Here are a few of the mentions:
– Page 361: “a young woman with Indian features went in to confess.”
– Page 366: “There used to be an Indian settlement here, remembered the inspector.”
– Page 368: “Three priests and two young Papago Indian seminarians who where studying anthropology and history at the University of Santa Teresa slept in an adjacent building.
– Page 394: “a Yaqui Indian who almost never talked.”

The most famous Yaqui Indian has got to be Don Juan.

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Matt, March 12th 2010 | Tags: , , ,
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Week 7: Dreams

by Daryl L.L. Houston

386: The Santa Teresa police chief dreams about his twin brother. They’ve gone out to roam the scrub hills and hunt for lizards, and upon their return at dusk, they see lots of trucks with cutesy phrases painted on them. The brothers, of different heights but of otherwise like appearance, have identical movements as they walk back into town. The dream “vanishe[s] little by little in a comfortable yellow haze.”

387: Epifanio dreams of the female coyote left by the side of the road. He just listens to her pain and doesn’t help her or put her out of her misery. Next, he’s driving Peter Negrete’s car along a long track into the mountains. When he accelerates, he hears a noise under the car, as if something is jumping. A huge dust plume (“like the tail of a hallucinogenic coyote”) rises behind him. He stops the car to check and see what’s making the noise and discovers a body tied up in the trunk, still alive. He closes the trunk without removing the cloth from the person’s head to see who it is and drives toward the mountains, though they appear to be burning or crumbling.

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Matt, March 11th 2010 | Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in 2666 Group Read

Week 7: Big Black Car

by Maria Bustillos

There’s a feeling of having arrived at a destination when the book begins to describe the crimes.  I’d somehow gotten the impression, having read about 2666 off and on before I tried it myself, that this section was an even drier kind of catalogue, almost without narrative.  It’s not really like that.  There is a catalogue of murders here, and it’s as numbing as advertised, but here’s the thing. The layering-up and rewriting and twisted, doubled-over reportage mirrors Bolaño’s treatment of other phenomena like books and authors (some of the victims described being real ones, and others, I think, fictional, though I have not looked up every single victim, and perhaps all their names wouldn’t appear on the Internet? I should welcome intelligence on this point, if we’ve got any.) In any case, it appears that some of what is being described is real, and some not. The nature of 2666 invites us to investigate these things for ourselves, gets us thinking about how much of what we’re being told in other writings, other media, is likewise being distorted, exaggerated, invented or just left out completely.

Clearly, we’re meant to be numbed here before we are shocked into consciousness. The clinical nature of these multiple accounts deadens the attention, too, and deliberately so. This mirrors the way we are numbed and deadened by all the other real horrors we hear about every day, in faraway places we’ve never been like Baghdad and Mosul and Kabul, or even in places we may have been, like Washington D.C. or Fort Hood or New Orleans.

We might become so numb that we even miss the elusive patterns in the flood of similar horrors described in this novel; many but not all of the victims are tall, are young, have been multiply violated and strangled—but some have been stabbed, or not raped, and sometimes the perpetrator is caught, and turns out to have been involved with the victim for a long time. There is an evil truth underneath all these incoherent, jumbled accounts, however. A mass murderer who drives or is driven in a black Peregrino—I’ve never heard of such a make, and Google offers no enlightenment—but I guess it is the same one waiting outside Amalfitano’s house when Fate and Rosa make their escape.

I never met Lily Burk, the 17-year-old girl who was abducted and killed last summer here in Los Angeles, but she was an acquaintance of my daughter’s. This murder was more along the lines of a botched robbery; the murderer was a recently paroled drug addict who was found just a few hours after killing Lily, high as a kite, we heard, and in possession of her keys and other effects.  Practically everyone I know has some connection with the Burk family through temple, school or work, and for many months we were all laser-focused on this disaster, talked about it constantly, read about it in the papers, learned everything we didn’t already know about the victim and her family. This is just one lovely child who was killed, the tenderly-raised daughter of a professional family, raised in an atmosphere where all the moms are very concerned together about such things as planning school fundraising events, and we also know how each kid is doing, because we’ve known them all since they were little, and we also have firm ideas about what the “in” appetizer is to bring to a party, and where the best Pilates studio is, and where to buy good dessert wine.  All of which seems simply obscene, or crazy, or both, in the face of the unbelievable shit that goes on.

It will be impossible for any of the victims in Santa Teresa to receive anything like the kind of attention accorded to the murder of Lily Burk (for what that’s worth, if anything,) or for the perpetrator to be caught and put away so quickly (which is worth something.)  The murder of a young girl doesn’t really shock anyone in Santa Teresa, because it happens once every few days. They’re even number than we are; they have to be. The community has no resources for preventing the next murder. At this stage of the novel, they haven’t really even figured out yet that there is a pattern; the police, even if they are willing, are operating in an absolute circus of disorder, corruption and mismanagement; they are powerless.

I am having a lot of trouble wrapping my head around the idea that this is a real thing, that it started in the early 90s, and that it’s still going on right this minute.

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Matt, March 10th 2010 | Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in 2666 Group Read

Week 7: Deaths

by Michael Cooler

1 — p.353 — Esperanza Gomez Saldaña — 13 yrs — Jan 1993 — found in vacant lot in Colonia Las Flores, strangled, raped
2 — p.354 — Luisa Celina Vázquez — 16 yrs — Jan 1993 — found in apt. in Colonia Mancera, strangled, pregnant
3 — p.355 — Unidentified — about 30 yrs — Feb 1993 — found in alley in city center, stabbed, beaten
4 — p.356 — Isabel Urrea — Mar 1993 — reporter for radio station El Heraldo del Norte, shot
5 — p.357 — Isabel Cansino — Apr 1993 — prostitute, beaten
6 — p.358 — Unidentified — about 35 yrs — May 1993 — found in a dump, worker, pregnant, strangled, raped
7 — p.359 — Guadalupe Rojas — 26 yrs — May 1993 — worker, shot by boyfriend
8 — p.360 — Unidentified — 25 or 26 yrs — May 1993 — found on the slopes of Cerro Estrella, stabbed, raped
9 — p.370a — Father Juan Carrasco — May 1993 — killed by the Penitent
10 — p.370b — Caretaker, church of Nuestro Señor Jesucristo — May 1993 — killed by the Penitent
11 — p.372 — Emilia Mena Mena — June 1993 — found in a dump, raped, stabbed, burned
12 — p.373 — Unidentified — between 23 and 25 yrs — June 1993 — discovered by school janitor, stabbed
13 — p.374 — Margarita López Santos — 16 yrs — June 1993 — body found near a shack, cause of death unknown
14 — p.389 — Unidentified — Sep 1993 — found in an abandoned car, strangled, raped
15 — p.390 — Gabriela Morón — 18 yrs — Sep 1993 — maquiladora worker, killed by her boyfriend
16 — p.391a — Marta Navales Gómez — 20 yrs — Oct 1993 — found in a dump, strangled, raped
17 — p.391b — Elsa Luz Pintado? — found near the highway
18 — p.392a — Andrea Pacheco Martínez — 13 yrs — Nov 1993 — kidnapped from school, strangled, raped
19 — p.392b — Felicidad Jiménez Jiménez — 50 yrs — Dec 1993 — stabbed at home by her son, Ernesto
20 — p.399 — Unidentified — Jan 1994 — found in the desert off the highway to Nogales, stabbed, raped
21 — p.400 — Leticia Contreras Zamudio — 23 yrs — early 1994 — prostitute
22 — p.402 — Penélope Méndez Becerra — 11 yrs — early 1994 –  kidnapped from school, strangled, raped, had a heart attack

Also killed:

p. 397 — The professional, a state judicial police inspector, who tried to kill Pedro Rengifo’s wife, is killed along with a man holding an uzi by Lalo Cura. Anyone else think this hit was orchestrated by Pedro Rengifo himself and was astonished when Lalo Cura “saved” his wife (actually botching the whole operation)?

Most of the women killed are said to have worked (or one can imagine would have worked) at the factories on the outskirts of town. But also two prostitutes are killed, and a male priest and sexton at a church in Santa Teresa. One or two women are killed in domestic violence disputes. One reporter is killed, supposedly because of a burglary, but it is easy to assume she could have been assassinated for covering the murder of women in Santa Teresa. Women who have long, straight, dark hair seem more susceptible to being murdered, who are often from foreign countries. An ominous black Peregrino or MasterRoad car kidnapped two different young girls from outside their schools. Can we guess this is the same black Peregrino that Amalfitano sees outside his home?

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Matt, March 9th 2010 | Tags: , , , ,
Posted in 2666 Group Read

Week 7: The Part About the Crimes, pages 353-404

The horror.

The evil.

The murders.

Well, at least the most-hyped part of the novel. Or the part that causes many people to put the book aside.

At first, the narrative seems to be straightforward. A girl is found dead. Then another, then another. But, like all parts of this novel, there is complexity upon complexity layered upon the narrative. There are murder mysteries, stories-within-the-stories, character arcs, allusions, black humor, and irony. The pages are dense with details, names, locations, fragments, and dots waiting to be connected.

This is my second read of the novel and I have to admit that I was not looking forward rereading this part again, to curling up with a nice book about female sexual homicides. Although, I knew that the section is full of deeper meanings that need to be teased out, even if the secret of the world is contained within them, I still found it a little hard to get motivated to start that section.

We are plunged into it. In the first five pages, we read about six different murders. As soon as we read about one, the camera pans away and we’re on to the next one. It’s like walking through a cemetery with a flashlight, trying to make sense of each headstone that your light finds. Who was this person? How did they die? How about this woman, too? Or that one over there, only 13?

Over the next month, I hope to look more at the real-world Santa Teresa, Ciudad Juárez, and it’s horrible crimes, but one of the sad ironies of both the fictional town and the real town is that women are attracted to the city because of the easy availability of jobs. Most of the murdered women are workers at the maquiladoras around town. These assembly plants require hundreds of workers, most of whom they pay poorly and treat as interchangeable, but on the scale of unemployment to employment, they are shining stars.

The city is rapidly growing and rapidly dying.

After eight murders in seven pages, we move to the story about the church desecrator, the Penitent, who stabs the church sexton and pees on the floor. Police Inspector Juan de Dios Martínez goes to visit the asylum to see if any of the patients match the description of the church desecrator. He doesn’t find the criminal, but he finds the director of the asylum. Why does Bolaño include the story of the Penitent here? The Crimes are not just the femicides—they are murder-as-murder, a desecration of the sacred, a soulcrime, an offense against God in some way.

More to come.

9 Comments

Matt, March 8th 2010 | Tags: , ,
Posted in 2666 Group Read

Week 6: Characters

by Brooks Williams

Guadalupe Roncal
A reporter covering the murders in Santa Teresa that Fate meets in the bar of the hotel where most of the other sportswriters are staying (Sonora Resort) (295-296). She says that investigating the murders is extremely dangerous. She fears for her life. Fate agrees to accompany her to visit the chief suspect in the murders. Rosa Amalfitano accompanies Guadalupe and Fate to the prison to meet the killer (344).

Rosa Amalfitano
Meets Fate at the Fernandez/Pickett fight (309). Fate rescues her from Charly Cruz’s house and brings her back to his hotel (323). Fate accompanies her to her house where he meets her father, Oscar Amalfitano (342-344). At the request of her father (343), Fate takes Rosa to the United States so that she can return to Spain (347).

Chucho Flores
A reporter covering the Fernandez/Pickett fight. He and Fate go to a bar after the press event at the Fernández event and meet Charly Cruz and Rosa Méndez (278-279).  Was Rosa Amalfitano’s boyfriend (329-337).

Charly Cruz
Friend of Chucho Flores. Owns three video stores (279).  Tells Fate the story of Robert Rodrigez’s first film (280-281).  Fate meets up with him again at the Fernández/Pickett fight and they (Chucho Flores, Charly Cruz, Rosa Amalfitano, Rosa Méndez, Juan Corona go back to Charly Cruz’s place where he shows Fate the Robert Rodriguez film (320).

Rosa Méndez
She has dated both Charly Cruz and Chucho Flores. Fate finds her passed out on a bed in Charly Cruz’s house (232). She appears to be Rosa Amalfitano’s only female friend. She tells Rosa Amalfitano about sleeping with policemen (“…like being fucked by a mountain in a cave inside the mountain itself…”) and sleeping with narcos (“…like being fucked by the desert air…”) (328-329).

Minor Characters

Kahlil
Member of the Mohammedan Brotherhood (292). Meets with Fate to discuss the Mohammedan Brotherhood.

Ibrahim
Member of the Mohammedan Brotherhood. Meets with Fate to show the charitable work of the Brotherhood (293).

Juan Corona
Meets Fate at the Fernández/Pickett fight (309). Appears to be dating Rosa Méndez. Gets punched out by Fate (324).

The Fourth Man
A mysterious individual that rode with Fate on the way to Charly Cruz’s house (319). He doesn’t speak. If I had to guess, I suspect he was part of some kind of plot of Charly Cruz’s to rob/kidnap/murder/etc. the group that Charly Cruz has invited to his house. That would explain the checking of the watch – waiting for accomplices maybe?

p291
Osama Bin Laden (1957 – ) – Leader of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda, best known for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian targets.

p292
Mohammed Atta (1968 – 2001) – Member of al-Qaeda who participated in the September 11 attacks on the United States.

p309
Denzel Washington (1954 – ) – African American Actor. Portrayed Malcolm X in 1992’s Malcolm X. Won an Academy Award for Best Actor in 2001 for Training Day.

p314
Barry Guardini – Fictional film director

p333
Professor J. Plateau – Professor at the University of Ghent (Belgium). A defense of his “general Theory of the Visual Appearances which arise from the Contemplation of Coloured Objects” can be found here

p335
Wolfgang Paalen (1905 – 1959) – Austrian-Mexican surrealist painter. Created a technique called fumage in which the smoke from a candle or lap is used to create patterns on a canvas. Paalen would them paint over these patterns using oils.

p339
David Lynch (1946 – ) – American filmmaker, known for his surreal films. Works of note include Blue Velvet, Lost Highway and Mullholland Drive.

Michael Jackson (1958 – 2009) – African-American singer and dancer. Known as the King of Pop.

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Matt, March 6th 2010 | Tags: , , , ,
Posted in 2666 Group Read

Week 6: Vocabulary

by Meaghan Doyle

I’ve also compiled an aggregated list of all the vocabulary words through week 6 (page 349).

agua fresca

a combination of either fruits, cereals, or seeds, and sugar and water, blended together to make a refreshing beverage

atrophied

decrease in size or wasting away of a body part or tissue

au revoir

Goodbye till we meet again (french)

bucolic

relating to or typical of rural life

effigy

an image or representation especially of a person

effusively

marked by the expression of great or excessive emotion or enthusiasm

faire l’amour

to make love, to have sex (french)

gesticulating

to make gestures especially when speaking

lethargy

abnormal drowsiness

masochist

a sexual perversion characterized by pleasure in being subjected to pain or humiliation

merci

thank you (french)

narcos

drug dealer

oneiric

of or relating to dreams

paean

a joyous song or hymn of praise, tribute

polyglot

speaking or writing several languages : multilingual

reportage

writing intended to give an account of observed or documented events

sordid

marked by baseness or grossness : vile

surreptitiously

done, made, or acquired by stealth

tacitly

expressed or carried on without words or speech

voulez-vous coucher avec moi

Would you like to sleep with me (french)

zoetrope

a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures

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Matt, March 5th 2010 | Tags: , , , ,
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Week 6: Locations

by Sara Corona Goldstein

Harlem, New York —Fate meets the Mohammedan Brotherhood here during a pro-Palestine demonstration just after 9/11. (p. 290)

Bronx, New York— Fate has an appointment with Khalil of the Mohammedan Brotherhood. (p. 292)

Mexico City —Guadalupe Roncal works for a newspaper here. (p. 296)

New York University —Fate went to college here. (p. 300)

Sioux City, Iowa —Chuck Campbell went to college here. (p. 300)

Arena del Norte boxing stadium — Fate goes here once in the morning, then again for the fight in the evening. He meets Rosa Amalfitano here. (p. 303, 305)

Veracruz, Mexico — Rosa Méndez asks if Fate has ever been here; “something bad must have happened” to her here. (p. 310)

El Rey del Taco – Fate, Rosa, Rosita, Chucho, Cruz, and Corona eat here after the fight. (p. 312)

Hermosillo—Garcia, one of Merolino’s sparring partners, spent eight years in prison here for killing his sister. (p. 319)

Charly Cruz’s house— Fate & co. end up here the night of the fight. (p. 319)

Fire, Walk With Me— a 24-hour cybercafe in Santa Teresa to which the clerk at Fate’s motel gives him directions. Fate does not go. (p. 339)

Santa Teresa prison — Rosa Amalfitano and Fate go with Guadalupe Roncal here to interview the chief suspect for the murders. (p. 345)


View 2666 Locations in a larger map

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Matt, March 5th 2010 | Tags: , , , , ,
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