Coming to PBS’s Voces series tonight, Friday, May 1: EL POETA
Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway’s look at the consequences of Mexico’s War on Drugs makes its debut nationwide as part of Latino Public Broadcasting’s series.
In 2011, five years into Mexico’s US-backed War on Drugs, which critics charge with exacerbating violence and resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of innocents, Juan, the 24-year-old son of acclaimed national poet Javier Sicilia, was found murdered, together with six of his friends, the victims of cartels. While his story sadly was not unique, his status as the son of a beloved author captured the attention of the media and the general public. Where, previously, victims were tacitly assumed to be somehow responsible for their own deaths, criminals or otherwise implicated in illicit activities, Javier’s son Juan emerged as an innocent, becoming a flashpoint for others who lost loved ones to speak out and be counted, gaining confidence, power, and protection en masse. Duane de la Vega and Galloway focus on this incident, and Javier’s response, to explore the devastation wrought by an ill-thought out drug policy and the grassroots efforts to finally call for its end. Javier, who declares he will no longer write poetry, assumes a quiet dignity as he emerges as an unlikely activist, mobilizing thousands to stand with him, even if his actions come up short against entrenched governments on both sides of the border unwilling to admit culpability.
what (not) to doc 