ANTHROPOLOGIST COLLECTS STORIES OF DRUG VIOLENCE

Business, Culture, War

People on both sides of the United States-Mexico border used to
routinely discuss drug trafficking with UTEP professor Howard Campbell
as if it were just a fact of life -- no big deal.

Then, drug-related killings in Juarez started spiraling out of control
two years ago, and the illegal drug trade became something more sinister.

The situation in Juarez has become a war, in Campbell's words, a
mercenary business where people are sacrificed for money or even
because of suspicions that they know something they shouldn't know.

"The whole thing has deteriorated and it's ruining Juarez," Campbell
said in a recent interview at the University of Texas at El Paso,
where he is a professor in the department of sociology and
anthropology.

Campbell offers a series of poignant dispatches from the streets of El
Paso and Juarez in his recently published book "Drug War Zone"
(University of Texas Press, $24.95 paperback, $60 hardcover).

"It's hard these days to be an independent operator because these huge
drug cartels control the streets through violent force," Campbell said.

The book portrays what it's like to be a drug smuggler, from the
lowest "mule" to the higher-level decision-maker. Almost all the
stories do not have happy endings.

Campbell also tells the story of law-enforcement officers trying to
stop drug smuggling on both sides of the border.

"Through those stories I'm trying to show what the world of drug
trafficking is like on the inside and also from a cultural
perspective," Campbell said. "I'm giving a perspective that hasn't
come out very often."

Campbell, an anthropologist, became fascinated reading about drug
traffickers and the criminal underworld in Mexican newspapers and
magazines while living in Mexico City in the early 1980s.

He discovered he was surrounded by the drug culture when he moved to
the border 18 years ago to teach at UTEP. Some students from Juarez
revealed they either had relatives in the drug trade or knew someone
who was involved.

Campbell decided to seriously study the situation when drug-related
violence first started to heat up in Juarez in 1997-98. He started
collecting and analyzing stories that different people were telling
him. He also wrote articles about narco folklore on the border and
women involved in drug trafficking.

"I found the whole thing fascinating from a cultural standpoint," he
said. "It was more than just business. It was a whole way of life."

Using connections made over the years, Campbell started looking for
people to interview on both sides of the border. He modeled his book
on Studs Terkel's "Working," a collection depicting people at work in
the American economy.

Campbell's book sold out its first printing and was well received at
the 2009 Texas Book Festival in Austin.

He describes drug trafficking as an international issue with plenty of
blame in Mexico and the United States.

"My main purpose is to show the human side of drug trafficking, that
many people involved are just regular working people," Campbell said.
"I'm not saying we should justify their conduct but should understand
who they are and why they engage in it."

Campbell is hopeful the book will entice regular readers, lawmakers
and others to re-evaluate the U.S. war on drugs policy and think more
about the U.S. relationship with Mexico and what the United States can
do to help lessen the violence in Mexico.

"I have a very pessimistic view of the situation now that things are
really dark and horrible," he said. "Here in El Paso, we can't deny
the relevance of it to our lives."
Meet the author

What: "Book signing by Howard Campbell, the author of "Drug War Zone."

When: "10 a.m. Thursday.

Where: UTEP Bookstore, 2201 Sun Bowl Drive.

Information: 747-5594.