In Ciudad Juarez, just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, sixteen-year-old Vicente and two of his high school friends murdered his mother, his father, and his little sister in cold blood. Through a Truman Capote-like reconstruction of this seemingly incomprehensible triple murder, Sandra Rodriguez Nieto paints a haunting and unforgettable portrait of one of the most violent cities on Earth. This in-depth and harrowing investigation into the thought processes of three boys leads the reader on an exploration of the city of Juarez, as well as the drug cartels that have waged war on its streets, in a bold attempt to explain the inexplicable.

Ideally qualified for telling this story, Sandra Rodriguez Nieto was an investigative reporter for the daily newspaper El Diario de Juarez for nearly a decade. Despite tremendous danger and the assassination of one of her closest colleagues, she persisted. She didn’t want the story of her city told solely by foreign reporters, because, in her words, I know what is underneath the violence. This book traces the rise of a national culture of murder and bloody retribution, and is a testament to the extraordinary bravery of its author. Among other things, The Story of Vicente is an account of how poverty, political corruption, failing government institutions and US meddling combined to create an explosion of violence in Juarez.