Paco Taibo II - Mexico City Noir

One wretched night he summoned us as witnesses to an abandoned auto shop in one of those neighborhoods I was talking about before. It was almost dawn. He’d managed to get the girl to come with him-she was tiny but had a pretty face; he’d found her in a bar. “I have a life-or-death message for your man,” he’d told her, and really, after that, who wouldn’t go with? Then, in that auto shop, everything got so intense and we each took turns. But later…

I don’t really want to remember what happened later; everyone did whatever. In the end, San Beni turned out to be more of a bastard than a pretty boy and we had no choice but to get rid of the mess. And there we were, stressed out but half asleep, trying to figure out how to end the story.

If it hadn’t been for my cousin The Clone-that moron made a deal with his gossipy sister-in-law, the one who sells tamales outside the Coyoacán station-I wouldn’t be here, in the RENO prison treatment center (which is nothing like the low-security CERESO), all freaked out about falling asleep next to my friends and their stench. It’s a smell, I swear on my mother, that never fails to provoke a recurrent nightmare in which my buddies are forcing me to eat painted fingertips inside Chiapas-style tamales.

E UGENIO A GUIRRE(born in Mexico City, 1944) won a Great Silver Medal from the International Academy of Lutèce, France, for his historical novel Gonzalo Guerrero , and a José Fuentes Mares literary award for Pasos de sangre . He has published more than forty-five books, including volumes of short stories and Mexican best sellers such as La cruz Maya, Isabel Moctezuma , and Hidalgo .

Ó SCAR DE LA B ORBOLLA(born in Mexico City, 1952) is a very popular writer of more than a dozen short story collections. He has a doctorate in philosophy and teaches university metaphysics.

R OLO D IEZ(born in Junín, 1940) is a two-time winner of the Hammett Prize, and winner of both the National Prize in Literature and the Gran Angular Award for young adult novels. His published works include Los compañeros, Vladimir Illich contra los uniformados, Gambito de dama , and La carabina de Zapata .

B ERNARDO FERNáNDEZ(born in Mexico City, 1972) won the Memorial Silverio Cañada prize in Spain for best first detetctive novel for Tiempo de alacranes . He is also a comic book artist and the author of several sci-fi works, including Gel azul , which won the Spanish Ignotus award for best science fiction novella in 2007.

V íCTOR L UIS GONZáLEZ(born in Mexico City, 1953), novelist and journalist, won the 1988 Juan Rulfo International Prize for best first novel with El mejor lugar del infierno .

F.G. H AGHENBECK(born in Mexico City, 1965), won the 2006 Vuelta de Tuerca prize for the best first detective novel with Trago amargo . He also writes for popular American comics, such as Crimson .

M YRIAM L AURINI(born in Santa Fe, 1947), one of the very first female noir writers in Mexico, is the author of Morena en rojo, Que raro que me llame Guadalupe , and Para subir al cielo .

J UAN HERNáNDEZ L UNA(born in Mexico City, 1962), a two-time winner of the Hammett Prize for best Spanish-language detective novel, has published more than a dozen crime-fiction novels, including Quizá otros labios, Cadáver de Ciudad , and Tabaco para el puma .

E DUARDO M ONTEVERDE(born in Mexico City, 1948) won the Rodolfo Walsh Prize for the best nonfiction Spanish-language book for Lo peor del horror . He is also the author of two experimental noir novels, Las neblinas de Almagro and El naufragio del Cancerbero .

A CHY O BEJASis the translator (into Spanish) for Junot Díaz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao . She is also the author of several books, including the highly acclaimed novels Ruins and Days of Awe; and editor of Havana Noir . Obejas is currently the Sor Juana Writer in Residence at DePaul University in Chicago. She was born in Havana.

E DUARDO A NTONIO P ARRA(born in León, 1965) won the 2000 Juan Rulfo International Prize. Los límites de la noche and Tierra de nadie are among his many published works.

J ULIA RODRíGUEZ(born in Mexico City, 1946) wrote one of the very first Mexican noir detective novels, ¿Quién desapareció al comandante Hall?

P ACO I GNACIO T AIBO II(born in Gijón, Spain, 1949) is the founder of the Mexican neodetective story, author of more than fifteen crime-fiction novels published in twenty-eight countries, and three-time winner of the Hammett Prize. He is the author of Cuatro manos ( Four Hands), Retornamos como sombras (Returning as Shadows) , and La bicicleta de Leonardo (Leonardo’s Bicycle) , among others, as well as the Héctor Belascoarán Shayne mystery series.