The Way That Leads Among the Lost: Life, Death, and Hope in Mexico City's Anexos

by Ángela García

The Way That Leads Among the Lost reveals a hidden place where care and violence are impossible to the anexos of Mexico City. The prizewinning anthropologist Angela Garcia takes us deep into the world of these small rooms, informal treatment centers for alcoholism, addiction, and mental illness, spread across Mexico City’s tenements and reaching into the United States. Run and inhabited by Mexico’s most marginalized populations, they are controversial for their illegality and their use of coercion. Yet for many Mexican families desperate to keep their loved ones safe, these rooms offer something of a refuge from what lies beyond them―the intensifying violence surrounding the drug war.

This is the first book ever written on the anexos. Garcia, who spent a decade conducting anthropological fieldwork in Mexico City, draws readers into their many dimensions, casting light on the mothers and their children who are entangled in this hidden world. Following the stories of its denizens, she asks what these places are, why they exist, and what they reflect about Mexico and the wider world. With extraordinary empathy and a sharp eye for detail, Garcia attends to the lives that the anexos both sustain and erode, wrestling with the question of why mothers turn to them as a site of refuge even as they reproduce violence. Woven into these portraits is Garcia’s own powerful story of family, childhood, homelessness, and drugs―a blend of ethnography and memoir converging on a set of fundamental questions about the many forms and meanings that violence, love, care, family, and hope may take.

Infused with profound ethnographic richness and moral urgency, The Way That Leads Among the Lost is a stunning work of narrative nonfiction, a book that will leave a deep mark on readers.

Genres: Nonfiction, Audiobook, Anthropology, Sociology, History, Memoir, Latinx

272 pages, Hardcover

Published April 30, 2024

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and powerful nonfiction book about Anexos, or informal treatment centers for substance use disorders and mental illness in Mexico City. I liked how Angela Garcia showed how the individual-level injustices that occur in Anexos (e.g., violence, sexism) are connected to broader systemic-level injustices (e.g., corrupt politicians, lack of social infrastructure to care for people who are ill, U.S. foreign policy). Garcia includes raw testaments from people who’ve resided in Anexos as well as their family members. She also intersperses some of her own life history throughout the book, which I appreciated so that we know some of her positionality. I resonated with her honesty about how her difficult childhood and how her marriage with a man ended, and it was intriguing to hear a little bit about her new romantic relationship with a woman.

The writing was intelligent and engaging though I thought the flow between passages could have been better at times. Still, I give this book four stars because of the novelty of covering Anexos and the author’s clear commitment to fighting social injustice how she can.

[Kate O'Shea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like a lot of reviewers I wanted to read this book because I'd never heard of anexos previously. In fact my only "knowledge" of drugs in Mexico is the sensationalist Narcos series which, in itself, felt chaotic.

As with other societies brought low by drugs, the people who are truly affected are the ones with the least ability to fight for themselves - badly educated, living in poverty, children of abusers to name a few.

Angela Garcia has spent years researching her subject and it shows. She has taken a head on approach to discovery which involves spending months living around and inside the anexos, speaking with the inhabitants, those who run the service and those who choose (through desperation) to place their loved ones there.

This is an absolutely fascinating book which I found impossible to read except in small bites due, simply, to trying to take in exactly what was happening in Mexico. It is horrifying and unlikely to improve in the face of corrupt Police forces, government and the foreign policy of the USA at present.

If you're even slightly interested in the real story of how families cope with drugs in Mexico I'd recommend this book. The stories deal with real people struggling to get free and make a good life for themselves and their families.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Farrar, Strauss & Giroux for the advance review copy.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wrestling with ethics and morals is totally my cup of tea, but boy did Angela Garcia catch me off guard with this one (in the best way).

Think Troubled Teen Industry meets poverty and struggle in Mexico City (and beyond). Think "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times", except their best looks closer to what you'd consider your worst.

I finished this in less than a day dispite it's length (over 200 pages loses my ADHD brain's attention if I'm not completely sucked in). Thanks to Angela Garcia I've discovered a greater empathy for those in recovery, more determination to help my local community, and a deeper appreciation for my family and support systems that hold me up along the way.

A perfect blend of research, experience devoid of emotion, and memior packed with enough feeling to bring tears. This is a one-of-a-kind book I could see blowing up; I'm very excited for the author, publisher, & narrorator.

(Thank you bunches to NetGalley & publisher Macmillan Audio for the ARC Audiobook in exchange for my honest review!)

[Katee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do you know what an anexo is? Before I started The Way That Leads Among the Lost I had no idea. Now I could tell you all sorts of things about anexos and the people who occupy them thanks to this book. Although I found it redundant at times I thought this book provided a fantastic learning experience for many. Intermixed between her archeological findings while studying anexos, Angela Garcia provides her own past in slight memoir portions that mirror the anexos. Although one might think that anexos are located only in Mexico they'd be wrong as there are many throughout the United States too.

I think this book would make for a book club book and also just reading for general knowledge. There are lots of things that can be discussed throughout.

Thank you to FSG and Netgalley for a copy in exchange for review consideration.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a Master's degree in addiction and spent years working with people struggling with addiction, abuse, and homelessness. Naturally, this title drew me in instantly.
Mexico is infamous for its violence, drug trafficking, and cruelty towards women. The numbers are shocking and the fact that they seem only to be going up is just as terrifying as climate catastrophe.
The author studies anexos, which are private establishments designed to help and bring hope to those who struggle with addiction, but not only. People who decide to use their services could be suffering from mental health issues or could be victims of abuse. The author stays in anexo and observes her surroundings, staff members, clients, therapies etc.
It would have been a great book if there was less author in it. I felt at some point that I knew more about Mrs. Garcia's childhood, her parents, her failing marriage, etc, than I knew about Mexico and the people in anexos.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book feels like a distinctively poetic addition to the (broad) literature on care and an antidote to the insular American view of Mexico City as trendy vacation destination. Colonia Roma and the volcanic rock of Casa Pedregal are departure points for Garcia. She takes us to districts that are cordoned off from Americans’ view, back and forth to her home state of New Mexico, and even Dante makes an appearance. This tour gives the book overall a spectral quality—I hope I didn’t just dream it up.

[Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ángela García’s “The Way That Leads Among the Lost: Life, Death and Hope in Mexico City’s Anexos” details the phenomenon of Anexos: clandestine shelters for victims of addiction, violence and homelessness. She uses Anexos to frame a broader analysis of violence and insecurity in Mexico as both a social and political phenomenon. García shows how in a social context marred with violence (largely due to a failed drug war initiated by Calderon in 2012), violence exists on a continuum that is not always clearly good/bad.

García resists the idea that violence has become normalized and accepted in Mexico. She proposes that the people most affected by violence, the working class and those in the informal economy, resist violence through mutual support, care, listening and protest. Sometimes this care itself can involve violence, as in the case of Anexos, where those interred may face verbal/physical insult. Anexos are not simply a place for those experiencing addiction to “get clean,” they are also a place where people go to be safe. In the context of larger social insecurity, violence in an Anexo can at least be contained.

García also explores the femicide epidemic in Mexico, and in doing so reveals another purpose of Anexos. Anexos are a way for women experiencing violence, at the hands of state/non-state actors, to protect themselves.

I really enjoyed this book, and appreciated that it was both a non-fiction analysis, and a memoir of the authors own experiences with addiction.

The recent election of Claudia Sheinbaum as Mexico’s president provided an interesting context to read this book in. From a political science perspective, I am curious as to how Sheinbaum will address violence in Mexico. Her predecessor AMLO used the military, which largely operates in opacity and itself contributes to the violence epidemic. Will she be different? Or continue in his footsteps, possibly backsliding Mexican democracy?

[Abby Montemayor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Angela García, antropologist and Stanford professor, shares the findings of her research about Anexos in Mexico City, including an overview of the country and the binational problems among Mexico and the US.

Anexos are low-cost drug recovery centers, a shelter for some where therapy includes physical violence. This study is very well researched, highlighting Mexico's history, demography, religious beliefs, and social analysis.

As well, it mentions events and problems that are painful for those who love the country and necessary to inform to those that are not aware of the situation in Mexico, such as the earthquakes, the narco war, The Tlatelolco massacres, The mass grave found in San Fernando, the dissapearance of the 43 students in Ayotzinapa and the high number of femicides.

In her extended research, she also quotes Emilio Pacheco, Elena Poniatowska, Cristina Rivera Garza, Sandra Uribe, among other Mexican writers.

Even if it includes a lot of information, it is presented in a way that is easy to read, and she also connects the experiences of people in the Anexos with memories of her own.

I found this book enthraling and informative. There were several things mentioned that even if I'm Mexican I did not know.
I recomend this book for readers who are interested in learning about the real situation of another country.

Thank you Netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for this digital copy.
Publication date: April 30th, 2024.

[Gabbi]

DNF: I was really looking forward to this book, but I feel really let down. The writing was good - very descriptive and emotional at times. However, I wanted to read about ANEXOS and I feel like I probably could have learned more about them by reading a Wikipedia page on them. The majority of the book was just García's life or the political/social history of Mexico. I know that the historical background is essential to knowing why anexos are so popular despite their potential for cruelty. But the descriptions of the anexos were just so vague to me. There's mentions of abuse and punishments, but none of those are clarified or specified. I personally think this book was a broad overview of Mexico's history with narcos and García's memoir instead of a book focusing on anexos. I got about halfway through and I don't think I learned much at all. And that's not to say that I learned absolutely nothing - I was just hoping for more.

Date Stopped: 01/13/25

[mar · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging, accessible ethnography from a poet-anthropologist on a topic that has not been written about much. I was particularly interested in the parts on the history of Ecatepec/how it got its reputation and anexos on the U.S. side of the border. Had some really interesting information abt international real estate developers’ impact on the narco war and made me want to learn more. I had not realized that when he was mayor AMLO hired Rudy Giuliani as a consultant to solve crime (his PR team really buried that detail well when he founded Morena like damn). My only big complaint (which is abt to make me sound sooo lame and uptight) is the lack of citations. My guess is Garcia did this to make the book feel more like longform journalism and less like academic ethnography, but there was not a single footnote and she was listing so many stats and policies and context beyond her own participant observation. On several occasions I would have been interested to look into her sources for more info, especially with the Ecatepec stuff and the stuff abt international real estate developers. The lack of citations also made me suspicious of the validity of some of the information when she made blatantly false claims. For example, she wrote that the Catedral Metropolitana was built on top of the Templo Mayor, “which was destroyed by Spanish colonists” but it was built on top of the Templo de Quetzalcuatl using stones from the destroyed Templo de Huitzilopochtli. The Templo Mayor was excavated and is v much still standing and is a major archaeological tourist site right next to the Catedral? Some out of touch/oversimplified statements of that sort about CDMX made me question the parts that were more background research on the city. Another example: there is a whole part where she notices a box of phones in the anexo in Tepito and assumes they’re being used to extort people when the Padrino of that anexo has spoken about the extortion problem in Mexico and seems like a good guy. As a sort of toss away, she acknowledges that the phones could have been either confiscated anexados phones or stolen phones to be sold, but she neglects to mention the whole ass giant stolen phone black market in Tepito that feels like important context and is a much more obvious reason for all the phones than her initial thought about the extortion? But also, why didn’t she ask her interlocutors? I’m wondering if she showed the padrino what she wrote because if I were him I would prob be offended. It felt to me like she needed to figure out how to tie in the topic of phone extortion and like made a lazy connection she could support using her own reflexivity and couching it in statements of uncertainty (the sort of which I am 100% guilty of making in my own past ethnographic writing but which I now see is not the most ethical). It seemed much more likely that seeing the image of the phones reminded her of this topic of phone extortion. Because also why would you need so many phones to extort people with, can’t you just use one phone? However, because she is the author, even if she expresses uncertainty, she holds authority, and the way these possibilities were framed make the reader believe her assumptions. Which made me wonder: reflexivity is often posed as a solution to many problematic power dynamics in ethnography, but when can our reflexivity actually do harm? What are its limits? Also, not her describing the holiest Catholic temple in the entire country as an “ugly, tentlike structure” I'm gagged. All of my nit-picky shade aside, I obviously found this super interesting and informative and it made me want to continue to look into other history related to these topics.

[Jaden · Rating 4 out of 5]

A narratively fragmented but often enthralling analysis of Mexico City’s informal anexos with autobiographical reflections interlaced throughout.

Through closely attuned long-term ethnographic fieldwork, Garcia explores how poor and working class mothers forcibly commit their loved ones to anexos less for drug addiction treatment than to protect them from the criminal and state violence perpetrated by the ongoing drug war in Mexico (and sometimes to protect themselves from the burden of caring for alcoholic, addicted and/or abusive kin). These anexos are contradictory spaces of both violence and care, where ritual practices of collective sharing and witnessing of shared suffering, abuse and trauma (testimonios) are used to build a fragile sense of mutual recognition, empathy and community among anexados. While saturated with their own forms of harassment, beating and humiliation, anexos emerge as spaces of mutual care and reciprocity predicated on shared vulnerability and exposure to family, neighborhood and state violence. Garcia illustrates the complex ambivalences that characterize the anexo as an institutional and social form of protection. For instance, poor mothers with structurally limited options commit their children to an institution that they know both traumatizes them and protects them from harm at once -- anexos simultaneously protect their members from death and abandonment while subjecting them to spatial containment and daily abuse. Garcia also effectively situates the use of anexos as a practical response to brutal forms of state and extra-state gendered violence against girls and women fueled by the drug war, which is systematically devalued and rendered invisible by authorities (despite important anti-femicide movement interventions in public culture).

As for weaknesses, the book often jarringly peeled from one anexo context to another in a way that felt disarticulated, leaving the analysis frustratingly incomplete and opaque. First-person experiential depth and temporally extended narrative continuity was lacking in many cases, leaving me wondering about the connection between the larger structural social, political, economic forces of the drug war and the actual backgrounds, conditions and experiences of her interlocutors. This is perhaps partly due to the limitations of ethnographic fieldwork conducted respectfully (i.e. Garcia does not seem to pry into sensitive traumatic territory to extract data from her interlocutors), but my sense is that it was also a stylistic choice that I was not able to fully appreciate. For instance, paradoxically, the analysis of how anexados experienced the anexo was thin. Garcia is a gifted writer, and there are compellingly narrated glimpses of silence, withdrawal, depression, acute pain and sorrow, but surprisingly little in terms of how anexados concretely experienced and navigated their time before, during and after their confinement. What were their lives like before, during and after their time in the anexo? How did they feel about being committed by family members? How did they feel their experience impacted them (e.g. did they feel it helped and protected them, or reinforced their problems)? Did they build caring relationships that helped sustain them after leaving? What was their interpretation of the use of violence and humiliation? Further, although thinly invoked throughout the book (e.g. Hortencia), it was unclear how mothers who committed loved ones negotiated their relationship with anexos over time, from initial request for involuntary commitment through intervening communication, to post-anexo forms of survival. How, for instance, did they experience the temporality of their loved one’s confinement, and how did they experience the relational effects and aftermath? Finally, many moments -- scenes, images, dialogue -- would be left hanging without any analytic or interpretive complement (as if they spoke for themselves). With a few exceptions, I felt that these moments needed more explanation and contextualization.

I’m ambivalent about the autobiographical elements interwoven throughout. They were always fascinating and moving per se, but not analytically effective when paired to the experiences of anexados and their kin. Other readers will likely have different preferences, but I would have split the book into (1) an autobiography and (2) an ethnographic analysis -- a blurry distinction to be sure, but one that would have been helpful in this context.

Overall, a vividly written, powerful analysis of the social suffering of the urban poor in Mexico amidst extreme violence, many of whose scenes are haunting and unforgettable.

[Katie Bruell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another reporting book mixed with memoir, but I liked this one better than the last one I read. It was a little dramatic and gruesome--there were a few pages I had to skip. The topic of anexos is pretty fascinating and one that I knew nothing about.

[Natalie Tan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I am new to medical anthropology/ anthropology but of the handful of authors I have read in the past couple of years, Garcia’s movement of prose and narration amidst the history, the personal, the private, and the observed has been one of the most stunning.
I took her class at Stanford in 2023 and am not surprised.

She is plainly candid in her capturing of history and its downstream impacts, illustrated by each individual story she recounts from anexados she meets in the different neighborhoods of Mexico City. One of the most striking themes that runs throughout all of her work that I have read so far is that violence and care can not only coexist but also be derived from the same place. Originally, I didn’t understand what she meant when I first encountered this concept, but I now understand— in the same way parents yell at their kids when they are worried about them, some parents send their kids to military camps in the US, and some parents pay for their kids to be kidnapped to anexos in Mexico to protect them from an even more cruel outside world. Still, other parents who use heroin share in their heroin usage behavior with their kids as a mechanism of care, an attempt to connect, relate, and protect one another. Violence, as Garcia observes, has always justified itself to the people, organizations, and governments who use it. It is rarely used because the perpetrators believe it to be completely senseless and useless. Is it fucked up? Yes. Do I see why people make the choices they do? Yes.

I read The Pastoral Clinic before I read The Way That Leads Among the Lost and would recommend others to do the same. I have heard some PhD students in the Stanford anthropology/ med anthro department echo the sentiment that while their work is necessary and important, few are happy doing it. “Anthropologists hate anthropology. It is hard to be cynical all the time and you can’t help but be more cynical the more you learn,” they said. Dr. Garcia stumbled her way into the work for TWTLATL while trying to escape the work that led to The Pastoral Clinic. It is admirable that in choosing her works, homecoming anthropology is still what she continues to complete. I can only imagine that it takes a lot of courage and heart to continue engaging with a scholarly discipline that not only reveals the most difficult truths about society, but also reveals and forces one to continuously confront their own most difficult truths. Other reviews say that Garcia spends too much time covering her personal story and not the stories of the anexos. I offer a different perspective: as Garcia studies anexos, she herself becomes an anexada, eventually shedding herself of the curated distance created by the titles of anthropologist and researcher as she contends with her history of homelessness, her relationship with her family and their abandonment, her worries about motherhood, marriage, and lesbianism, and her depression and epilepsy, all of which she deals with during her study of the anexos, in the manner of treatment offered by the anexos. Anexos exist in the US, amidst several communities of our own (like the SF Bay Area), and anexos are also consequences of the relationship between the US-Mexican drug and arms trade. She asks of her audience to do the same when we observe and study suffering, to see ourselves in the people who suffer, to bear the same crosses, and to climb the same hills. Her story is imperative to this book, if only to show a privileged audience that anybody could be in those shoes, that anybody, including a Harvard-trained Stanford professor, can suffer with and benefit from and live with and become the annexed.

In the world of the academic, we are often either busy coming up with solutions to, avoiding, or exacerbating the complex, generational, institutional problems that we don’t fully understand yet. Our world is idealistically preoccupied with solution-oriented impact, is obsessed with the temporary means to patch up fundamentally broken political systems. Garcia’s writing has shown me the increasing importance of taking the time to fully understand and solemnly bear witness to the pain and suffering that people live through every day while waiting for these solutions, while waiting for justice, while waiting to be given a voice. To bear witness to the ways in which each individual person valiantly makes do for themselves and for others amidst their condition. Because oftentimes justice is never afforded, people’s voices are never heard, and solutions are buried under bureaucracy and governmental and military corruption and inefficiency. In a sense, to bear witness while the relentless train of history chugs onwards with our eyes wide open may be one of the only ways that we can preserve our collective humanity and dignity. The Way That Leads Among the Lost is a tremendous feat that seeks to and to an extent, accomplishes exactly that.

[Jill Dobbe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gives readers a unique look into how marginalized Latino communities sometimes deal with family members who need help. Whether it be for drug use, alcoholism, or just keeping a loved one safe, the Anexos seem to be needed facilities for those who have nowhere else to go or no one to turn to. The author researches several Anexos in various parts of Mexico and the U.S. and they all seem to have common themes. The facilities are hidden away, mostly one-to-two-bedroom apartments, and run by padrinos who often employ the same harsh tactics for clients to get healthy.

The author relays how she feels about what goes on in the Anexos as she visits and observes the children, teens, and adults who stay in them, sometimes for years. She writes about the personal issues of a few of the members, all while incorporating snippets from her own life and her own dysfunctional upbringing. A well-written memoir, Garcia's writing is informative, nonjudgmental, and interesting. Her accounts of the violence, disappearances, extortion, and kidnappings in specific areas around Mexico City are eye-opening. Mexico is such a beautiful country, but the dangers of living there are too real.

As an expat living in Latin America, I was drawn to this book. I lived in Mexico for a year, but Anexos was new to me. It's a sad reality that more and more are popping up, even in the U.S. Thank you to Netgalley, Angela Garcia, and the publisher of this ARC.

[Carl Lobitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 This non-fiction study of Mexican annexos, illegal sanctuaries that house drug-addicted, trafficked, and hunted individuals where they undergo mutated forms of rehabilitation founded from the Christian values of AA, is the story of an anthropologists study and life before and during her life in Mexico City performing her research. I found the first person accounts of individuals within annexos to be harrowing and noble. Parents, often single mothers, with no options due to crime and poverty use what few resources are available to keep their loved ones safe from addition and crime. However I found the narrative structure to be confusing and disjointed. The author bounces around from her research to her personal life with very little segue, leaving me confused. I was often unable to sit within a specific narrative for it to be memorable or carry the emotional weight that the story deserved. Jumping around spatially and chronologically made this listen disjointed, whether that was intentional or not, I feel did not translate to the audio book, as the people and places that acted as the anchors for each story’s narrative blended together due to my own lack understanding of Spanish. This was a valuable listen to a world I have never heard of nor could have conceived of its existence, but I wish the author had let the research tell the story, rather than tying so much of the narrative to her own experiences.

[jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

not sure i want to rate this. this is my first anthropology book & i enjoyed the non linear storytelling so for that 4.5/5. this was heavy i think that’s why i stretched it out but it just made me feel a very deep sadness for mexico. as i’m writing this, this past sunday (10/6) a mayor appointed to office last monday (9/30) was found decapitated. it’s very depressing to think about the current state of violence in mexico right now & even more so how very little is being done about it. i hope that change comes soon

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book about Anexos and the author's own troubled childhood. Anexos are a refuge from the violence, drugs, and criminal danger that can be overwhelming in Mexico's impoverished areas. A person is committed to the Anexo by a member of their family and their stay is paid for by cash, trade, or food depending on what the Anexo will accept and the family can afford. The Author, an American with Mexican ancestry set out to study these unrecognized institutions. Anexos are common in parts of Mexico and even in areas of the United States with high Mexican populations. They are at times violent or disturbing, never regulated, but give families piece of mind when dealing with a troubled or endangered relative.

Garcia has written an engaging book. It describes her experience as an anthropologist studying several Anexos, but she has also included her own troubled childhood of abandonment and homelessness. She tells her story as part of the whole cloth of parental responsibility and different ways of dealing with difficulties that include helplessness and poverty. We even get some insight into the political maneuverings in Mexico that lead to that crime, poverty, and helplessness. This is a good book exploring information that is often hidden from view.

[Shana · Rating 3 out of 5]

***Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review***

Before this book, I had never heard of anexos before and for that reason alone, I believe this book is a valuable contribution to our overall understanding of how the violent drug grade inflicts harm on already marginalized communities. I appreciated having my knowledge expanded and in particular, I felt such sadness for the mothers in ridiculously difficult positions of trying to save their children by any means possible. When there are no great choices, we simply have to make one and hope. This ethnographic narrative, while interesting, was written in a style that I found a bit hard to follow at times. Angela Garcia's inclusion of herself within it rejects the old standards where the ethnographer is supposedly an impartial, objective observer. But this is where things got a little muddled for me because at times I wasn't sure why I was learning something about her and how it related to her study of the anexos. If there was a purpose to it, I didn't quite get it. Apart from that, I am grateful to have had the existence of anexos brought to my awareness.

[Jeni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Upon finding out that García's book focused on treatment of mental illness and addiction in an informal form to those that are least likely to be able to access it through formal channels, I became very interested in picking it up. It was even more informative than I imagined it would be. García spent over a decade studying multiple anexos in Mexico and her deep dive into the subject matter and time dedicated to learning about it directly shines through. This book really highlights the difficulty in knowing how to support our loved ones who are caught in addiction or severe mental illness, particularly when the medical complex doesn't seem about to meet the needs of all those in need. Throughout, parents, children, and siblings question the decisions they are making for their loved ones and try to balance the hard decisions they have to make. García herself has had a life that one wouldn't describe as easy and that included many of the traumas her subjects have had to work through giving her additional insight and sympathy for the people she meets while learning more about anexos.

[Hector · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s difficult to find an honest, thorough, and deeply connected study of history in progress, yet anthropologist Angela Garcia does just that in her personal journey into the tragic and life-saving(?) world of Mexico’s anexos. Prior to reading this book, I knew nothing of anexos and their prevalence in major Mexican cities. What I did know was that the drug wars were tearing families apart and “disappearing” countless men, women (mostly), and children. Are anexos the solution? Still undermined. But in times of desperation, what is one to do? What is helpful? What is forgivable?

I think the most important statement Garcia makes is to remind those trying to understand anexos and substance abuse is that “the issue of drug addiction is secondary to the question of safety from violence.” So simple, yet so true.

In the end, one cannot truly understand contemporary Mexico without seeing it through the people’s response to la guerra sucia. This book is that lens and I highly recommend it.

[Erika Reynolds · Rating 3 out of 5]

Angela Garcia is an anthropologist who deep dives into the world of Mexico City’s anexos: subdivisions where families send their loved ones to treat addiction and mental health disorders, or to avoid the crime and gangs that plague Mexico. She seeks to understand and shed light on why these anexos exist, what compels families (primarily mothers) to send their loved ones away, and how anexos speak to a larger problem in Mexico and the US.

This is an informative and interesting read. Garcia’s writing style is conversational which makes the topic easier to follow. At times she gets too conversational by weaving in her life story, which I did not feel fit with the overall point of the book. I would have rated this a 4 otherwise because I learned a ton and appreciated how accessible the book was despite being such a relatively unknown topic. Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Angela Garcia for this free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Julian Ranz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A peak into a world I did not know existed. Anexos are informal "centers" (mostly small rooms or apartments) for alcoholism, addiction, mental illness, or as a refuge from violence in Mexico.
The scale of the catastrophe that is the drug war (with the US contributing illegal guns, customers, and for-profit prisons while Mexico contributing the dead), has led people (mostly poor families or single mothers) to make impossible decisions: paying to keep loved ones locked away in an anexo.
Dotted with accounts of unimaginable violence, people in anexos provide a glimpse into the human condition with the delivery of their testimonies and with the violent methods that the anexos provide care.
The author visited anexos in Mexico City for years to provide a view into these spaces and gives the book a memoir-feel in parts by blending in her own struggles after being abandoned as a child in New Mexico. A bit repetitive in some sections but overall a very heart-breaking and interesting read.

[Amor :P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Often in anthropology and ethnography we’re told to omit our presence and solely focus on the notes and information acquired, and while the subject focused on is important we fail to incorporate ourselves into the narrative. This book made me laugh and cry in so many ways, relating to the subject and the author’s own journey. The way it’s written made everything feel so real, that there is a person behind each of the words written, and that there are people who must survive the conditions described in Mexico and Anexos. This is a book that will stick with me, leaving me to wonder the ways in which every day people acquire healthcare and create community to lift each other up. I think by intertwining our stories with the stories of others shows an understanding beyond basic empathy, and that there is a deeper connection between us all.

[Patty Ramirez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very thorough investigation about anexos in Mexico and the US. Anexos (or little rooms) are informal treatment centers or safe houses where families can commit a relative to keep them safe or to receive treatment for mental illness or drugs.

García has in-depth interviews with the leaders and patients at these anexos and also witnessed the daily activities at different locations. She also interviewed and followed-up with the patients’ relatives.

This was a great read and I learned about anexos, which I had never heard of before this.

Thank you to the publisher and author for providing a free copy of this book through NetGalley.

[Giovanni García-Fenech · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't too sure about this when I picked it - was I really up for reading an entire book about informal addiction boot camps in Mexico? Well, I'm glad I took the chance, as this is much more than that.

In this beautifully written book, García (no relation), an anthropologist, uses anexos as a window into the life of the poor in Mexico, the drug wars that have destroyed the state, the misery that was unleashed by NAFTA, the plague of femicides that has horrified the world, and more. She also reveals a lot of herself, her difficult childhood, the end of her marriage, and her love and concern for her daughters. I am hoping this reaches a wide audience, it really deserves it.

[Anna Dalton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this audiobook!

I had never heard of anexos before listening to this book. The concept is fascinating and raises many questions:

How far would you go to protect a loved one?
Is it possible we need to be protected from ourselves more than anything/anyone else?
Do anexos help or hurt or both?
What will desperation cause us to do that we never thought we could?

The narrarator did an excellent job on this audiobook, and I'm so glad I listened as opposed to reading. I think hearing the Spanish words pronounced was extremely helpful.

[Cesar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anexos, for better or worse, are a part of the Mexican experience. It wasn't until I read this book that I realized just how often I'd come across one, personally or in conversation, throughout my life.

Angela Garcia does an incredible job of weaving her research, as well as her own story, into something that lays bare the complexity of Mexico's long history of love, violence, solitude and resilience.

[Elizabeth Foreman White · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very heavy read. It took me almost two months to finish. However, that’s not because it’s not an important, well-written, and well-researched book. Reading about addiction and recovery is hard. It’s even harder when you’ve loved someone in recovery or with an addiction. This book really taught me a lot about how the US plays a big role in the state of the humanitarian crisis in Mexico. It’s a gut punch though, so be ready for that.

[faithy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book has really great, important information. Garcia has so much life experience and it fits in nicely within the framework. The writing style can be a bit confusing sometimes, and although it’s a really heavy topic, I think there could’ve been more sprinkles of hope because I personally could see misinformed people over generalize this and project onto latin@s. Just my opinion, obviously. Overall SUPER informative

[Adrienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is quite an achievement and I'd recommend for anyone interested in contemporary Mexico. I wanted to give it four stars, but was frequently distracted by the weaving in of memoir, which worked only sometimes to enrich the narrative. I was also distracted by the insertion of "expert" quotes which seemed to be dropped in randomly, rather than providing a theoretical or critical underpinning for the work as a whole.