"Memorias de un loco anormal, el caso de Goyo Cardenas", by Andres Rios Molina
At first sight, it seems to be a surrealistic case. A serial killer who just got out from prison is received and applaused by all the members of Parliament. Thirty years before, he had strangled four young ladies and was known as one of the first serial killers of the modern era. He also escaped from prison before being rearrested. Gregorio “Goyo” Cardenas had become famous in Mexico in the Second World War years. His case had been followed day by day by the whole country. And the debate came back in the late 1970s when his lawyers asked for his release.
So… Was it really surrealistic ? My friend Andres Rios Molina – I knew him in El Colegio de México a few years ago – explains precisely how this event has been made possible. Actually the case of Goyo Cardenas concentrates all the contradictions of the judicial system, from the police investigation to the release of the prisoner. It deals with questions about insanity and irresponsability, about the death penalty, the life conditions on prison, the possibility of a reintegration into society… It is as if all the judicial issues had concentrated in one case.
And because the doubt remains in every judicial case, the book explores the possibility that Goyo Cardenas could have been innocent. The hypothesis is even quite attractive… But whether he is innocent or not, it is more a valuable questioning on the judicial system and the way societies build their own fears and figures and how they destroy them.
The book (only in Spanish for the moment) is just a perfect mix between the rigorous historical investigation and a fascinating story. Andres Rios Molina leads the reader in the atmosphere of 1940s Mexico. And then initiates people to his everyday work as a historian. And finally raises sociological and philosophical questions.
“Memorias de un loco anormal”, Andres Rios Molina
Edicion Debate
136 pages
Barrio latino 