Abecedario de Juárez: Alice Leora Briggs
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becedario de Juárez: An Illustrated Lexicon and a Memento Mori
Inspired by Hans Holbein the Younger’s Alphabet of Death (circa 1520), Alice Leora Briggs drafted in 2010 another alphabet, this one for Ciudad Juárez. In that year, she and Charles Bowden published Dreamland: The Way Out of Juárez, and Julián Cardona, a friend and colleague of both, continued his relentless investigations of life and
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death in his hometown. Also in 2010, Juárez amassed at least 3,057 murders, defending its reputation as one of the most violent cities in the world. Birth, then death—no exceptions— there is no deviation from this path. Some deny this reality, or camouflage it in otherworldly ideologies of an afterlife. From beginning to end, the path taken by each life is a mix of well-being, contentment, health, and happiness, all regularly frustrated by sickness,
sadness, insecurity, failure, violence, and deterioration. Conflict sweetens these counterpoints and kindles their impact. Coming home from a battle is a bittersweet joy. We humans create conflict and its trimmings as means to endure. Warfare, bloodshed, arguments, torture, murders, massacres, and terrorism are daily fare, feeding an appetite unquenched, unfinished, and often unadorned. Abecedario de Juárez: An Illustrated Lexicon, the collaboration between Alice Leora Briggs and Julián
