Even in today’s new desensitized culture there are thousands of cases of offended individuals fighting against what they see as the mass application of violence and sexuality in today’s society. Many would be shocked to see that in places with cultures virtually unknown to our own, death is not nearly as taboo. Case in point: Mexico’s thousand of “tabloid” like publications that present real blood, murder, and carnage. Enter the world of
Alarma!,
Alarde!,
Peligro!, and
Insolito!.
While visiting Mexico, a common tourist may be shocked to see that vendors carry the weekly paper
Alarma! which clearly represents violence and carnage on the cover. Faces of bloated bodies and virtual bloodbaths horrify the eye, while headlines such as “Massacre!” scare the reader senseless. The magazine features real-life deaths and the criminals who commit them. In the November 16, 1991 issue of
Enlace! such a story rings clear with the title of “
Macheto A
SU MADRE!”
The story tells of a man named Gustavo
Guzinan Rios who killed his mother and sister with a machete while in a state of complete drunkenness. Rios claimed he was not repentant. The story is plastered with photos of the dead mother and sister as well as the devious killer. The sister’s body is split in two, organs leaking out through the gash between her two breasts. The scene looks like something you’d see out of a crazed “B” horror movie, not something you’d actually see in real life, but it all is completely utterly true.
These magazines also feature the famed “centerfold” featuring scantily clad women as well as crossword puzzles featuring… scantily clad women. They also have their fair share of deformities, wonders, and miracle cures. The pages of these magazines feature a world not seen by many in the hustle and bustle of today.
Through magazines like these one is faced with Mexico’s high tolerance of death. Death is not a simple happening for these kind, loving people, it is culture. Festivals like the Day of the Dead show how greatly death and its exploits are
ingrained in Mexican customs.
Alarma is not just some cheap
exploitation magazine
meant for sickos and despots, but a bible of culture that finds its demographic from young rebellious youth to 70 year old grandmothers.
More Next Week... An article from a Mexican Death Magazine!The Alarma Website
The world loves personalized junk. Remember those cute personalized licence plates your aunt used to give you every time she came back from her vacation to Florida? The ones that just scream: I really was drunk my entire vacation and didn't think of getting you a souvenir at all! Here's a cheap piece of sweatshop molded plastic with your name on it that I happened to find at the last minute! Boy that was great! Personalized crap is as American as apple pie!
"Culture fans thousands of miles from Beijing can now visit its famous Forbidden City, through a three dimensional recreation of the vast palace that also allows them to dress up as an imperial eunuch and meet a courtesan.
Posts
