Beyond mourning
Alma Guillermoprieto wandered a drought-stricken town in El Salvador, cattle carcasses poking from the dirt. “It was so poor, so poor, so poor,” she says with a wince, telling the story now. Guillermoprieto’s visit was prompted by the discovery on Aug. 25, 2010, of the bodies of 72 migrant workers, men and women hailing mostly from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador who had been heading north to the United States through Mexico, along a stretch of railroad known as la bestia — the beast. News of the massacre sent chills around the world, reinforcing notions of chaos and terror in Mexico. In El Salvador, Guillermoprieto found the family of one of the 14 women among the victims, discovering that many of her kin, and many from her small and impoverished village, had perished along la bestia. Guillermoprieto, a Mexican-born journalist, author, and former Radcliffe Institute fellow, recalled asking the woman’s 13-year-old relative if...