The Booming Work Readers Are Doing

A Summer Shout To Subscribers

When I’ve boasted that CrashOut supporters include a stellar circle of people from top academics to front-line agents to recovering drug addicts, I’m not lying. And to prove it, here is a small sample of the work that readers are coming out with. I’m also proud to say that you really are a genuine cross section of characters with diverse view points here, all sucked in by the world of organized crime, drugs, Mexico and wherever this journey leads us all.

I’m thrilled the writer Jennifer Clement is a CrashOut reader and above is a picture of her latest book, “The Promised Party: Kahlo, Basquiat and Me,” (it’s in Spanish as La fiesta prometida) which came out May 28 in the United States.

Clement is a real-deal prize-winning novelist who was president of PEN International (the writers and free speech group). Her book “Prayers For The Stolen” about the coming of age of girls in the midst of cartels and human trafficking was made into a movie released on Netflix and shortlisted for the Oscars.

Clement is an American who grew up in Mexico so in the basket of American-Mexicans (the reverse of Mexican-Americans) like a few people I have met south of the Rio Grande (another is the Wall Street Journal writer David Luhnow). Her new book is a memoir which goes from living next to Frida Kahlo’s house in Mexico City in the sixties to the New York arts world of the seventies - a scene that includes Studio 54 and William Burroughs. I truly envy experiencing both of these mileus. Clement even has the Brit-Albanian pop star Dua Lipa calling her memoir “an engaging glimpse into the life of a true artist.”

Flipping the script 180 degrees, I truly appreciate the support of Kenneth Strange Jr, a former FBI agent who worked some serious cases. Strange has published a memoir “A Cop’s Son: One G-Man’s Fight Against Jihad, Global Fraud and The Cartels.” As the title says, his dad was a cop, serving NYPD for 38 years and is his inspiration while Strange Jr worked terrror, fraud, and cartel cases, dealing with the Juarez mob at their peak. Both the former police commissioners Ray Kelly and Bill Bratton endorse his work.

In a differerent direction again, the CrashOut comments have been enriched by Carlos Maza, a Mexican writer, editor, sociologist and musician. He is contributing to a new edition about migration of the UNAM International magazine. In case anyone doesn’t know, UNAM is Mexico’s landmark public university and one of biggest schools on the continent with a rich academic tradition. Available at the end of the month, the special edition will include a bunch of features on the red-hot immigration issue that I’ll be waiting for.

And for a whole different perspective yet again, I’m pleased to have Bernardo J. Rico in the CrashOut Community, whose career includes banking in Latin America as well as U.S. Aid and into drug policy. Working on the book, “America's Drug Story - The Genesis of an Epidemic and How to Solve It,” Rico has launched his own Substack, which looks at the impact of the drug problem north and south of The Border.

This is just a slither of the great stuff coming from the CrashOut Community. If you are a paid-up member and want to shout any projects for the newsletter, please shoot me a message. (And a bigger shout as well to the subscribers who aren’t writing anything at all but have proper jobs like building houses and growing food that makes the world go round!)

I have also included a call (video or phone) for members and have been talking to a variety of you about your projects and many other things besides. If anyone else wants to take advantage of this then fire a message to ioangrillo@hotmail.com and we’ll make it happen. I get bombarded by requests to chat by other people and sadly can’t get to them all anymore, but CrashOut Supporters are top of the list.

We’ve now topped 7,000 total subscribers, and stories reach many times that number, but it’s still a fraction that are paying the bills, so giving that call again now - for the bargain offer of $5 dollars a month, cheaper than a Starbucks Cappucino in the U.S.A., you can make the magic happen with a cuppla clicks.

The dust is still settling on Mexico’s election with the vote count currently at 59.77 percent for Claudia Sheinbaum of Morena, a decimating 32 points over Xóchitl Gálvez of the opposition coaltion. I had an editorial in the New York Times on what the Pre-si-denta elect could try and do to stop the cartel bloodbath; I’ll be covering plenty on this here on CrashOut as it develops.

It’s still bloody hot in Mexico City, and running out of water. Let’s hope Tlaloc (the god of rain) fills up the reservoirs before it gets really ugly. I hope it’s cooler where you are, but either way, stay well, stay safe, and stay here.

Copyright Ioan Grillo and CrashOutMedia 2024