PBS高端访谈:墨西哥反映关于暴力和韧性的两个故事

 　　UDY WOODRUFF: Finally tonight, to Mexico, and a personal look at the United States' neighbor to the south through the eyes of a journalist.

　　MARGARET WARNER: Mexico is a country of riches and promise, now the second fastest-growing economy in Latin America, yet it is plagued by violence and corruption¹ fueled by the drug trade that has killed some 80,000 people in the past decade.

　　A new book by Dallas Morning News correspondent Alfredo Corchado seeks to understand why. Corchado was brought to the United States as a small boy, yet in 1994, he felt drawn² to return to Mexico as a journalist. His new book, "Midnight in Mexico: A Reporter's Journey Through a Country's Descent Into Darkness," draws on his nearly 20 years of reporting there, and on his personal relationship with his birth land.

　　Alfredo Corchado joins me now. And welcome.

　　ALFREDO CORCHADO, author of "Midnight in Mexico": Thank you.

　　MARGARET WARNER: Last time we saw each other was Mexico City.

　　ALFREDO CORCHADO: Right before the election.

　　MARGARET WARNER: Now, the book opens with this harrowing tale of you getting a phone tip from a source that saying someone is about to kill an American journalist in the next 24 hours, and your source is convinced it's you. Everyone tells you to get out of Mexico, and you stay to investigate.

　　Why? What did you think you would learn by trying to follow the thread of who was after you?

　　ALFREDO CORCHADO: Well, you know, that was a real turning point. We left as -- I was only six years old when we left Mexico, and I always thought I would come back someday.

　　And my mother always felt that really our opportunity, our prosperity lied in the United States. And I thought, well, Mexico is a country that it's also -- has the potential to give back. So I wanted to go back to Mexico and prove my mother wrong. That evening, I kept thinking, is my mother right? Why do I feel so betrayed by Mexico?

　　MARGARET WARNER: So what is your conclusion after all these years of coverage³ about why Mexico descended⁴ into this darkness of corruption and a drug trade and violence and killings⁵?

　　ALFREDO CORCHADO: Well, we had the big change in the year 2000. The opposition⁶ government for the first time took office. They kicked out the regime which had governed Mexico for 71 years.

　　So, essentially⁷, you have the power going from a central power to more to a state level. And suddenly I think organized crime just took advantage of that power vacuum, and the monster came out, if you will.

　　MARGARET WARNER: You also -- a persistent⁸ theme in this book has to do with the Mexican character. And you have just flicked⁹ at that a little bit talking about your mother, but you describe a kind of fatalism. And it comes -- it reappears. What do you mean by that?

　　ALFREDO CORCHADO: As a kid growing up in the U.S., you hear so much about Mexico and the Mexican character. Are we -- is it a culture of corruption? Is it a part of our genes¹⁰?

　　I live in Mexico City, but I spend a lot of time on the U.S.-Mexico border. El Paso is one of the safest cities in the United States. Yet, Ciudad Juarez for many years was marked as one of the most violent cities. So I think I have always been skeptical¹¹ about that.

　　Is it really a culture of fatalism, or is it really a lack of rule of law? Is it weak institutions?

　　And that's something that has always been a source of my curiosity as a journalist.

　　MARGARET WARNER: And so what have you concluded?

　　ALFREDO CORCHADO: I have concluded that, sometimes, amid the worst moments in Mexico, I have seen the best of Mexicans. And I have seen a resilient spirit.

　　I have seen a people fighting to really construct communities, oftentimes from the ruins of what we have seen in the last few years. A hundred thousand people were either killed or disappeared.

　　But people, I think -- in some ways, the violence has brought people together. And it's kind of made them try to hold government much more accountable than they have done in the past.

　　MARGARET WARNER: And now Mexico really does have this rising middle class. I think net migration¹² is down to zero, at least between Mexico and the U.S. There are civil society groups.

　　Do you take any hope in these trends, that Mexico's -- that the sort of balance will shift, and you will have stronger institutions, and you will have citizens saying, no, we need better here?

　　ALFREDO CORCHADO: I often feel like, as a journalist, covering Mexico is like covering two countries. There's that troubled side of Mexico, the country where the violence is there.

　　But there's also, I think, a much more prosperous side of Mexico. I often think, as an American, that someday Americans will miss Mexicans, because the birth rate has gone from seven to two. You don't see Mexicans migrating. It's interesting.

　　I was just in a region in Central Mexico. People, I asked them, do you have the same desire to migrate like other generations? And they say, well, if I do, it's more of curiosity than out of necessity.

　　And I think someday there will be a time when Americans say, where are the Mexicans?

　　MARGARET WARNER: But,I mean, within Mexico, Mexico has a new president now, Enrique Pena Nieto.

　　Do you see any kind of new era dawning? Or do you think that the two worlds, the two Mexicos will continue to have to coexist, that is, the prosperous rising middle-class economy and this whole other hugely profitable, hugely corrosive¹³ underbelly?

　　ALFREDO CORCHADO: I think, if you ask most Mexicans, they want the others shining -- they want that central part of Mexico to become much more of a -- replicate¹⁴ other parts of the country.

　　But I think as long as you have the security challenges, the economic potential, the prosperity will be undermined by those challenges. I think, in the end, the question is, can Mexico have peace without justice?

　　And that's -- as a journalist, I think the next few years will be the most fascinating time to cover. Just how much have Mexicans really changed? I mean, can they hold the old regime accountable?

　　MARGARET WARNER: And so you're staying?

　　ALFREDO CORCHADO: I'm staying. I'm staying. I don't have -- it's not that I have a death wish. I'm staying because I really believe in the Mexicans themselves and I believe that the story has to be told.

　　And I hope that the book, I hope that my reporting continues to serve hopefully as a bridge of understanding between these two countries.

　　MARGARET WARNER: Well, Alfredo Corchado, author of "Midnight in Mexico," thanks.

　　ALFREDO CORCHADO: Thank you, Margaret.

1 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

2 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

3 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

4 descended   

a.为...后裔的，出身于...的

参考例句：

• A mood of melancholy descended on us. 一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
• The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。

5 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。

6 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

7 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

8 persistent   

adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的

参考例句：

• Albert had a persistent headache that lasted for three days.艾伯特连续头痛了三天。
• She felt embarrassed by his persistent attentions.他不时地向她大献殷勤，使她很难为情。

9 flicked   

（尤指用手指或手快速地）轻击( flick的过去式和过去分词 )； （用…）轻挥； （快速地）按开关； 向…笑了一下（或瞥了一眼等）

参考例句：

• She flicked the dust off her collar. 她轻轻弹掉了衣领上的灰尘。
• I idly picked up a magazine and flicked through it. 我漫不经心地拿起一本杂志翻看着。

10 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

11 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。

12 migration   

n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙

参考例句：

• Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
• He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。

13 corrosive   

adj.腐蚀性的；有害的；恶毒的

参考例句：

• Many highly corrosive substances are used in the nuclear industry.核工业使用许多腐蚀性很强的物质。
• Many highly corrosive substances are used in the nuclear industry.核工业使用许多腐蚀性很强的物质。

14 replicate   

v.折叠，复制，模写；n.同样的样品；adj.转折的

参考例句：

• The DNA of chromatin must replicate before cell division.染色质DNA在细胞分裂之前必须复制。
• It is also easy to replicate,as the next subsection explains.就像下一个小节详细说明的那样，它还可以被轻易的复制。