A Silent Fury

By Yuri Herrera, Lisa Dillman (translator),

Book cover of A Silent Fury: The El Bordo Mine Fire

Book description

On March 10, 1920, in Pachuca, Mexico, the Compania de Santa Gertrudis - the largest employer in the region, and a subsidiary of the United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company - may have committed murder.

The alert was first raised at six in the morning: a fire was tearing…

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Why read it?

1 author picked A Silent Fury as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I was simultaneously horrified and riveted by this painstaking, searing account of a mine fire that took place in the Mexican mining center of Pachuca in 1920 and the subsequent coverup by the government and media.

The underground fire that burns even as those on the surface go about their business is both historical fast and a metaphor for the “silent fury” of many Mexicans over the inhumanity of corporations operating in their country, and over the conditions of impunity created by legal and political institutions.

This fury continues to burn in the 2020s, Herrera suggests, just as it did…

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