Bill
Dia is set during the peso crisis of 1994 and its
aftermath. The devaluation of the peso (I just looked this up
to refresh my memory.) was the largest bail out by the IMF up
until then. The devaluation was particulary hard on the
border towns as, up until then, Mexicans were used to
crossing the border to shop for food etc, things that were
cheaper in the US at the time.
Red Jungle is set in present day Guatemala. The coffee
crisis there is on going. The Crisis is due to a lot of
factors, but the most important one is the fact that many
other countries have recently gone into coffee production, so
there is much more production in the world than, say, before
1980. Believe it or not, these new producers, like Vietnam,
produce coffee even cheaper than producers in Latin America
can, in part because the Vietnamese pay their workers even
less. The coffee crisis has generated a reaction in consumer
countries like America, Germany and France etc. creating
consumer groups that
"label" coffee as "sustainable" meaning the workers who
helped produce it are being treated fairly by employers,
given health care, a decent wages etc. This is a good thing,
it helps workers in very concrete ways.
kent
William Denton <
wtd@pobox.com> wrote: I didn't a chance to say
anything last week, but I've enjoyed seeing the chat with
Kent Harrington. Kent, I have a question about the times when
DIA DE LOS MUERTOS and RED JUNGLE are set.
I'm rereading DIA right now, and I can't find the line, but
there's a mention near the start that the peso has collapsed
and the Mexican economy is in trouble. DIA was published in
1997--is that a reference to the
"December mistake" of 1994, an economic crisis, or is the
book set slightly in the future? I ask because RED JUNGLE is
set slightly in the future, where coffee is dropping in price
and the Guatemalan economy is in trouble. I don't know enough
about Mexico to guess if you were doing the same thing in
DIA.
Here's a line from DIA DE LOS MUERTOS that made me laugh.
It's thought by a beautiful woman as she walks over a bridge
out of California and crosses the border into Mexico: "Going
back ito Tijuana was like putting on a pair of crotchless
panties."
I can hardly believe you have a new novel sitting in the
drawer that no-one wants to publish! The publishing business
makes no sense.
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : www.miskatonic.org : www.frbr.org
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
SPONSORED LINKS Writing book Writing a book Writing child book Mystery books Book writing software Mystery book club
--------------------------------- YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
Visit your group "rara-avis-l" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: rara-avis-l-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
---------------------------------
--------------------------------- Yahoo! for Good Click here to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/kqIolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~->
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: rara-avis-l-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 20 Sep 2005 EDT