Overview

Central American nations have recently had the highest per capita homicide rates in the world-surpassing the per capita death toll even in war-torn countries like Iraq and Afghanistan-and gang violence has been the dominant explanation for this tragic state of affairs. But why has gang activity become endemic in the region? Photojournalist Donna De Cesare began covering Central America during the civil wars of the 1980s, focusing especially on the disrupted lives of children and youths, and continued her photography project in Central American refugee communities in the United States in the 1990s and postwar Central America in the 2000s. She documents a history of repression, violence, and trauma, in which gangs are as much a symptom as a cause of trauma, trapped as they are by social neglect. With profound empathy for a reality that is too easily defined and dismissed as repugnant, Unsettled/Desasosiego takes us on a visual journey into the lives of children deeply affected by civil war and gang violence. De Cesare's photographs and bilingual personal narrative trace the evolution and expansion of the notorious 18th Street and Mara Salvatrucha gangs from the barrios of Los Angeles to the shanties of Central America. They show how decades of war and violence-as well as the illegal drug trade-have created a culture that allows gangs to flourish. At the same time, her photographs portray the humanity of gang members and their families, encouraging us to understand the lives of youths at the margins and to take responsibility for the consequences of political and social actions that have ruptured Central American society for generations.

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9780292744394

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...an urgent and moving work that chronicles those who grew up amid political wars, gang wars or both. It is a look back on lives that were lost, and some who triumphed, during her many years in the region. --David Gonzalez, The New York Times Unsettled/Desasosiego humanizes a problem that is so great it feel insurmountable. Her photographs and stories show us the war from the inside and remind us of the confusing reality that there is no clear line between the good and the bad guys... speaking truth to power and righting the wrong by finally bringing justice to but a few of the lives destroyed by a war that has no end. --Miss Rosen, Le Journal de la Photographie Award-winning photojournalist Donna De Cesare has followed gang members and their families for more than 30 years - throughout the region's civil wars of the 1980s to the disrupted lives of children in refugee communities in the U.S. in the 1990s and then to postwar Central America in the 2000s - uncovering the impact of war and gang violence on youths. Her work has has been featured in Aperture, Mother Jones, and other publications, but her most harrowing black and white images have been brought together for a new bilingual book, titled 'Unsettled: Children in a World of Gangs.' Through her spectacular images, she points to a history of repression, violence, and trauma, in which gangs are as much a symptom as a cause of trauma...However, her photographs also show another, more human, side to the gang members and their families.This insight encourages the viewer to understand their hardships and take responsibility for the consequences of political and social actions that have allowed gangs to dictate Central American society for generations. - Helen Pow, Daily Mail In her book Unsettled/Desasosiego: Children in a World of Gangs, [Donna De Cesare] documents a history of repression, violence, and trauma, in which gangs are as much a symptom as a cause of trauma. - Leonard Lopate

...an urgent and moving work that chronicles those who grew up amid political wars, gang wars or both. It is a look back on lives that were lost, and some who triumphed, during her many years in the region. --David Gonzalez, The New York Times Unsettled/Desasosiego humanizes a problem that is so great it feel insurmountable. Her photographs and stories show us the war from the inside and remind us of the confusing reality that there is no clear line between the good and the bad guys... speaking truth to power and righting the wrong by finally bringing justice to but a few of the lives destroyed by a war that has no end. --Miss Rosen, Le Journal de la Photographie

Author Information

A recipient of numerous honors, including National Press Photographers Association awards, the Dorothea Lange Prize from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, the Mother Jones Award for Social Documentary Photography, and a Fulbright Fellowship, Donna De Cesare is Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. Her photography has been exhibited internationally in venues such as Visa pour l’Image in Perpignan, France; Centro de la Imagen in Mexico City; the Guangdong Museum of Art in Guangzhou, China; the Museo Tecleño in El Salvador; the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen in Mannheim, Germany; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

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