The Culture Secretariat and the National Arts Institute (INBA) both expressed their grief for the death of Mexican writer and journalist Sergio González Rodríguez, age 67, author of “The 43 of Iguala.”
The INBA released a statement in which they highlighted González Rodríguez’s trilogy of essays/news reports “Desert Bones,” “The Headless Man” and “War-field,” which talked about violence against women and the havoc that drugs cause on modern societies.
Culture Secretary María Cristina García Cepeda wrote on Twitter: “I’m deeply saddened by the passing of Sergio González Rodríguez, renown author and essayist. My deepest condolences for his family and the newspaper @Reforma.”
The National Literature Coordination of INBA released a statement from writer Jorge Luis Volpi Escalante, who considered González Rodríguez to be “one of the most important voices of our time.”
“As a journalist he constantly documented the dark side of our public lives, especially in ‘Desert Bones,’ but also in every book he wrote afterwards,” said Volpi Escalante.
In the field of fiction, Volpi Escalante said that González Rodríguez reflected on the darkest side of human nature, while as a journalist he pondered “the originality and humanity that most journalists never looked at in basic aspects of our public lives.”
Many colleagues and publications posted their condolences on Twitter.