One day a few years ago, 300 migrants were kidnapped between the remote desert towns of Altar, Mexico, and Sasabe, Arizona. A local priest got 120 released, many with broken ankles and other marks of abuse, but the rest vanished. Óscar Martínez, a young writer from El Salvador, was in Altar soon after the abduction, and his account of the migrant disappearances is only one of the harrowing stories he garnered from two years spent traveling up and down the migrant trail from Central America and across the US border. More than a quarter of a million Central Americans make this increasingly dangerous journey each year, and each year as many as 20,000 of them are kidnapped. Martínez writes in powerful, unforgettable prose about clinging to the tops of freight trains; finding respite, work and hardship in shelters and brothels; and riding shotgun with the border patrol. Illustrated with stunning full-color photographs, The Beast is the first book to shed light on the harsh new reality of the migrant trail in the age of the narcotraficantes.

The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail

History

Martínez, Óscar

Americas

Verso

This is a book about one of the deadliest places in the world El Salvador and Honduras have had the highest homicide rates in the world over the past ten years, with Guatemala close behind. Every day more than 1,000 people—men, women, and children—flee these three countries for North America. Óscar Martínez, author of The Beast, named one of the best books of the year by the Economist, Mother Jones, and the Financial Times, fleshes out these stark figures with true stories, producing a jarringly beautiful and immersive account of life in deadly locations. Martínez travels to Nicaraguan fishing towns, southern Mexican brothels where Central American women are trafficked, isolated Guatemalan jungle villages, and crime-ridden Salvadoran slums. With his precise and empathetic reporting, he explores the underbelly of these troubled places. He goes undercover to drink with narcos, accompanies police patrols, rides in trafficking boats and hides out with a gang informer. The result is an unforgettable portrait of a region of fear and a subtle analysis of the North American roots and reach of the crisis, helping to explain why this history of violence should matter to all of us.

A History of Violence: Living and Dying in Central America

El Salvador and Honduras have had the highest homicide rates in the world over the past ten years. Oscar Martinez, author of The Beast, which was named one of the best books of the year by the Economist and the Financial Times, shares a beautiful and immersive account of life in one of the most violent places on earth. Martinez travels to Nicaraguan fishing towns, southern Mexican brothels where Central American women are trafficked, isolated Guatemalan jungle villages and crime-ridden Salvadoran slums. With his precise and empathetic reporting, he reveals the underbelly of some of the most dangerous places in the world, going undercover to drink with narcos, accompanying police patrols, riding in trafficking boats and hiding out with a gang informer. The result is an unforgettable portrait of a region of fear, helping to explain why migrants have been fleeing the area by the millions.

Verso Books

The compelling story of the life and death of a Salvadoran gangster As a boy, Miguel Ángel Tobar’s small town in El Salvador was torn apart by guerrillas and US- backed death squads. Still a preteen, he joined a different kind of death squad—the Hollywood Locos Salvatrucha—a clique of the Mara Salvatruchas, better known as MS-13. This international criminal organization began on the streets of Los Angeles in the 1980s, as Salvadoran children, whose families had fled their country’s civil war, banded together to defend themselves from LA gangs. Denied refugee status, the Salvadorans found themselves pushed into the shadows and besieged by violence, and MS-13 itself mutated into a gang. When large-scale US deportations began, violence was exported from the United States to El Salvador, helping make it one of the world’s deadliest countries and in turn propelling new waves of refugees northward. The Salvadoran journalist Óscar Martinez and his anthropologist brother Juan José Martínez got to know the Hollywood Kid when he informed on MS-13. In his hideaway shack, he recounted a life of killing—a death toll of more than fifty rival gang members—until his own murder ended the story. Vivid and violent, The Hollywood Kid brings a brutal world to life, illustrating the geopolitical forces propelling a country toward ever more vicious extremes.

The Hollywood Kid: The Violent Life and Violent Death of an MS-13 Hitman

Biographies & Memoirs

Martínez, Juan

Community & Culture

Con una tasa de homicidios mayor que muchos países en guerra, el triángulo que componen países como Honduras, El Salvador y Guatemala, presenta cifras escalofriantes: 90 asesinatos por cada 100, 000 habitantes al año. Estos números rebasan por un gran margen lugares reconocidos por su violencia crónica, como Estados Unidos. Para evitar que esas cifras caigan en la desestima de la incomprensión, Óscar Martínez da forma a este libro con un conjunto de crónicas cuyo tema central es la cotidianidad de una sociedad sumida en el abandono y la violencia. Martínez, periodista y redactor de la sección criminal en el primer periódico digital centroamericano, El Faro, explora la peligrosa situación que los habitantes de esta zona sufren diariamente. Con un tono íntimo y el coraje de los verdaderos periodistas, su personaje encubierto acompaña sin escrúpulos un recorrido policiaco, se sube a un bote con migrantes y se entrevista durante días con un informante pandillero.&gt; ENGLISH DESCRIPTION With a higher homicide rate than many countries at war, countries like Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, present shocking figures: a yearly rate of 90 murders for every 100,000 people. These numbers exceed by a lot places knowned for their chronic violence, such as the United States. In order to make those numbers make sense, Oscar Martinez shapes this book with a set of stories whose central theme is the everyday life of a society that is wallowed in neglect and violence. Martinez, who is a journalist and writer of the crimes section for the biggest digital newspaper in Central America, El Faro, explores the dangerous situations that people in this area suffer on a daily basis. With an intimate voice he narrates how he courageously goes undercover and accompanies a police chase, climbs into a boat with migrants, and interviews a gang informant for days.

Una historia de violencia. Vida y muerte en Centroamerica / A History of Violence (Spanish Edition)

Literature & Fiction

Short Stories & Anthologies

Debate

El relato maravillosamente escrito de los hermanos Martínez d’Aubuisson sobre la vida y la muerte del temible pandillero El Niño de Hollywood, basado en horas y horas de entrevistas con él y sus allegados, revela incomparablemente la dinámica subyacente del fenómeno de las pandillas centroamericanas de una manera detallada y perspicaz.-Dennis Rodgers ¿Qué tiene que ver la administración Reagan con que un pandillero centroamericano haya asesinado a más de 50 personas en su país? ¿Qué relación hay entre la ciudad de Los Ángeles de los años 70 y el violento occidente salvadoreño del nuevo siglo? ¿Cómo un grupo de migrantes adictos al heavy metal terminó pariendo a la pandilla más reconocida del mundo? ¿Es una tontería explicar un genocidio indígena, los procesos del café en El Salvador y la guerra civil de 12 años para entender a un asesino de la Mara Salvatrucha 13? ¿Cómo puede un Estado como el salvadoreño quedar en deuda con un despiadado sicario? Hay muchas preguntas y muchas respuestas. Una de ellas es ésta, la vida de Miguel Ángel Tobar, El Niño de la clica Hollywood Locos Salvatrucha de la MS-13. Incluso hay preguntas que quedan abiertas: ¿cómo es posible que, décadas después, el gobierno estadunidense encabezado por Donald Trump no haya entendido nada de esto?.ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
“The Martinez brothers’ marvelously written account about the life and death of a fearsome gang member “The Hollywood Kid”, based on numerous interviews with him and people close to him. In a very detailed and insightful way, the book reveals the underlying dynamics of the phenomena that are Central American gangs.” - Dennis Rodgers
What does the Reagan administration have to do with a gang member killing over 50 people in his country? What is the link between the Los Angeles of the 70s and the violence erupting in El Salvador in the new century? Would it be odd that in order to understand a killer from the MS-13 gang, we would need to explain an indigenous genocide, the processes of coffee making in El Salvador, and the 12-year civil war? Why would a country like El Salvador be indebted to a ruthless assassin?
There are many questions and many answers; one key mystery is precisely this one, the life of Miguel Angel Tobar, the kid from the Hollywood Locos clique of the MS-13. There are however, many questions still unanswered like, why so many decades later the US government, led by Donald Trump, has not been able to comprehend any of this?

El niño de Hollywood / The Hollywood Kid (Spanish Edition)

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Product Description 
Un texto brutal y necesario, que cuenta lo que casi nadie quiere oír y reflexiona sobre los riesgos, la ética y la necesidad del oficio de periodista. 
Hay tres cadáveres con nombre y vida en Los muertos y el periodista. Hay más, pero tres son esenciales. Tres hermanos salvadoreños pobres cuyos cuerpos aparecieron desfigurados (como poco) en un cañaveral. Este libro cuenta su historia. ¿Los tres hermanos han muerto realmente en un enfrentamiento entre pandilleros rivales? ¿A quién se protege no investigando las pruebas? ¿Qué cuentan los testigos que se atreven a hablar? Pero, junto con su historia, cuenta varias más: historias que componen el fondo de un abismo moderno. 
Por estas páginas asoman narcos, sicarios, policías corruptos, asesinos impunes y políticos que tapan los crímenes. En estas páginas hay poca redención. Abundan las dudas. A través de las experiencias vividas por el autor, que pasó trece años cubriendo una de las esquinas más violentas del planeta, se cuenta un mundo. Y ese mundo, que es el nuestro, es un mundo sobre el que casi nadie quiere oír. El lector tiene en sus manos un texto brutal y necesario, que reflexiona sobre los riesgos, la ética y la necesidad del oficio de periodista. 
 Review 
«Un periodista de una valentía inusual y un escritor de un talento prodigioso» (Daniel Alarcón). 
«La escritura de Martínez es elocuente, cruda e incisiva, repleta de vívidas observaciones y de detalles» (New York Journal of Books). 
 «Merece elogios no solo por su esfuerzo y por lo que escribe, sino porque escribe maravillosamente bien» (The New Yorker). 
«Un narrador poderoso» (Columbia Journalism Review). 
 Book Description 
Un texto brutal y necesario, que cuenta lo que casi nadie quiere oír y reflexiona sobre los riesgos, la ética y la necesidad del oficio de periodista. 
 About the Author 
Óscar Martínez (San Salvador, El Salvador, 1983) es jefe de redacción de Elfaro.net y autor de los libros Los migrantes que no importan (2010), La bestia (2013), Una historia de violencia (2016) y El niño de Hollywood (2018). Es también coautor del libro de crónicas Jonathan no tiene tatuajes (2010) y de Crónicas negras. Desde una región que no cuenta (2013). Entre los diversos premios que ha recibido destacan en 2008 el Premio Nacional de Periodismo Cultural Fernando Benítez de México, en 2009 el Premio Nacional de Derechos Humanos de la Universidad José Simeón Cañas de El Salvador, en 2016 el premio Maria Moors Cabot de la Universidad de Columbia y el Premio Internacional a la Libertad de Prensa, entregado por el Comité para la Protección de los Periodistas, y en 2018 el Premio Hillman.

Los muertos y el periodista (Cronicas Anagrama, 122) (Spanish Edition)

Editorial Anagrama

Aimed at rediscovering the most experimental and least-known graphic designs created in Catalonia between 1965 and 2002, Hidden Graphics digs deep and deliberately at the fringes of what might be called the "official" history of design. On the lookout for graphic and sociological innovation, this volume plumbs work within the following limits: minimal distribution, intended for a small audience, and emblematic of a time and reflecting a will to experiment, critique or innovate. Categories include: Graphic Transgressions (stating a clear transgressive will in both content and form), Technographics (where employed technology marks meaning), Metadesign (intended for communication between designers, done without commission or by self-commission), and Graphic Interlopers (created by non-designers).

Gráficas Ocultas

Arts & Photography

Graphic Design

EDITORIAL ACTAR

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Martínez, Óscar. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Martínez, Óscar

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Martínez, Óscar. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail

The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail

A History of Violence: Living and Dying in Central America

A History of Violence: Living and Dying in Central America

A History of Violence: Living and Dying in Central America

The Hollywood Kid: The Violent Life and Violent Death of an MS-13 Hitman

Una historia de violencia. Vida y muerte en Centroamerica / A History of Violence (Spanish Edition)

El niño de Hollywood / The Hollywood Kid (Spanish Edition)

Los muertos y el periodista (Cronicas Anagrama, 122) (Spanish Edition)

Gráficas Ocultas