Everyday life in the San Miguel "bubble" is worlds away from that in Sinaloa, where cartel activity is a normal presence in the every fiber of politics, commerce and everyday life. Its perception within Sinaloa comes at least as much from ambient backdrop as through efforts in the media to pierce the curtain. Not many writers take on that coverage, but Arturo Santamaria Gomez has written in this arena as an author and more recently as a weekly columnist on narco culture, business and influence on society in Sinaloa, where his work appears in the Mazatlan daily, Noroeste.
Arturo has published 25 books on Mexican migrants in the United States, Mexican politics, and the narcotics industry in Mexico, and a variety of topics during and since his lengthy career as a professor of sociology at Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa. He has served as an invited professor at Cal State University and the University of Buenos Aires. He has lived in Mazatlan for 42 years.
Professor Santamaria discusses how the ubiquitous narco influence plays out in Sinoloa, and how he practices what has for many proven to be a perilous craft.