Porky Jefe 89 is a collage dedicated to the bus drivers of urban Guatemala, an homage to those who work in what analysts have called “the most dangerous profession on the planet.” It is also a commentary on the normalization of violence in a society grown so accustomed to death it slumbers through the din of gunfire and turns a deaf ear to survivors’ calls for help.
Over the past two decades gang-run extortion rackets have grown in urban Guatemala to the point they now constitute a national crisis. The prevalence of extortion related killings makes driving a bus exceptionally dangerous. Extortionists use the murders of bus drivers to send a message to the owners of bus routes as well as to society writ large, advertising their power to levy and enforce their demands.
“The horror, the terror, these are the piece’s central themes,” Lucah explains. “The chaos and disorder; the violence and corruption.” The different elements of the collage, many of them inspired by the stickers drivers commonly use to decorate their buses, are intended to soften the image of violence in order to make it more digestible. The idea is not to sanitize violence but to represent it in a manner that subverts the will to look away from a disturbing reality. Porky Jefe 89 coaxes us to consider the crisis of criminal violence beleaguering Guatemalan cities. It makes legible the terrorism of gang-run extortion rackets as well as the complicity of corrupt police, unethical journalists, and indifferent politicians. (The man asleep on the job is former president Jimmy Morales.)
Porky Jefe 89 holds a mirror up to a society where violence permeates everyday life. It is not just the periodic murders of bus drivers which concern Lucah, but also those quotidian acts of violence tearing at the social fabric, eroding empathy and trust. Selfishness. Discourtesies. Imprudence. Bus drivers confront on a daily basis not only the threat of gun violence, but the specter of road rage and the belligerence of disgruntled passengers. Aggression foments more aggression, thus the popular bumper sticker: estoy pensando como romperte la madre – I’m trying to decide how to fuck you up.
Porky Jefe 89 is a collage dedicated to the bus drivers of urban Guatemala, an homage to those who work in what analysts have called “the most dangerous profession on the planet.” It is also a commentary on the normalization of violence in a society grown so accustomed to death it slumbers through the din of gunfire and turns a deaf ear to survivors’ calls for help.
Over the past two decades gang-run extortion rackets have grown in urban Guatemala to the point they now constitute a national crisis. The prevalence of extortion related killings makes driving a bus exceptionally dangerous. Extortionists use the murders of bus drivers to send a message to the owners of bus routes as well as to society writ large, advertising their power to levy and enforce their demands.
“The horror, the terror, these are the piece’s central themes,” Lucah explains. “The chaos and disorder; the violence and corruption.” The different elements of the collage, many of them inspired by the stickers drivers commonly use to decorate their buses, are intended to soften the image of violence in order to make it more digestible. The idea is not to sanitize violence but to represent it in a manner that subverts the will to look away from a disturbing reality. Porky Jefe 89 coaxes us to consider the crisis of criminal violence beleaguering Guatemalan cities. It makes legible the terrorism of gang-run extortion rackets as well as the complicity of corrupt police, unethical journalists, and indifferent politicians. (The man asleep on the job is former president Jimmy Morales.)
Porky Jefe 89 holds a mirror up to a society where violence permeates everyday life. It is not just the periodic murders of bus drivers which concern Lucah, but also those quotidian acts of violence tearing at the social fabric, eroding empathy and trust. Selfishness. Discourtesies. Imprudence. Bus drivers confront on a daily basis not only the threat of gun violence, but the specter of road rage and the belligerence of disgruntled passengers. Aggression foments more aggression, thus the popular bumper sticker: estoy pensando como romperte la madre – I’m trying to decide how to fuck you up.