Endurance

When one opts for substance over style, popular defiance of the implementers of Mexico's state of oppression has its counterpart in the US beat hands down. Not that Mexican revolutionaries don't also have style, but their ability to cut through the rhetorical fog of political party propaganda--as well as their willingness to take risks in pursuing freedom--simply put Americans to shame.

Speaking of style, Paco Ignacio Taibo's novel about Mexico's long fight against aristocratic and neoliberal fascism Returning as Shadows is one of the most entertaining examples of historical fiction I've ever read.

Viva Zapata!