Early in Dead Boys: A Memoir, a series of linked essays, Adriana E. Ramirez talks about watching a pirated news feed from Mexico and seeing nine bodies hanging from a pedestrian bridge. Ramirez writes that she is familiar with the bridge; she has driven across it many times. As she listens to a news anchor list the names of the dead, Ramirez realizes that while she does not know these specific people, she is familiar with this story:Nuevo Laredo is a Mexican border town like the one I grew up near, Reynosa. The details that characterize these bodies feel irrelevant in the face of geography and luck. There were bodies yesterday; there are bodies today; there will be bodies tomorrow. Everyone knows the border is dangerous now, at least the Mexican side. Laminated signs along the bridges: “Proceed with Caution.”The bodies linger in Ramirez’s mind as she goes about her day. They follow her in part because she is ruminating on her own loss: the death of her brother, who died in a horseback…
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