Marlén Castro: Reporting was simply what I was happy doing when I started on a career path as a young woman. I didn’t have a goal of using media for social justice. In the capital where I still live, we had many local media outlets, and I got a job at El Sol de Chilpancingo, the most trusted paper in town. But when I wrote articles critical of local officials, I found out that these reports would not get published. The ruling party, the PRI, controlled the paper. That made me very uncomfortable, and I felt that Guerrero needed an independent news source.

How did you choose the name “Amapola” — “Poppy” — and why do you describe your reporting as “transgressive?”

The official narrative deems Guerrero a violent state dominated by criminal activity that deals with an illicit crop, heroin from the amapola. We aim to dismantle that story. The poppy has its own longer history, as a beautiful flower grown in our gardens for generations. And the people of Guerrero produce much more than heroin. They produce food for the people. We know that the heroin supplies a US market and that the control over the drug trade sits far away, in El Norte.

We want to provoke people to think differently about Guerrero. We give our intended audience, the people of Guerrero, the truth, both about the ineffectiveness and corruption of our local government, but also about the positive things that ordinary citizens are doing to make Guerrero a wonderful place to live. We write, for example, about locals who make chocolate, have tea shops, or make arts and crafts.

We see the poppy as a perfect symbol for our journalism, something indigenous that brightens our gardens, but also something that impacts the entire society.

Manuel, you hosted an exhibit and sale of photos as a fundraiser for Amapola. Why did you want to support this effort?

Manuel Mancillas-Gomez: I’ve had life-long connections to journalism. As a small boy, I loved visiting the newsroom where my uncle, a sportswriter, worked. Independent media has been important to me as well. I first saw Marlén on an independent TV station. I was struck by her story about strip mining in Guerrero. She showed a photo of what had been a 3,600-foot-high hill that’s become a 3,600-foot-deep hole!

That project brought environmental destruction and violent confrontations between the company and local citizens, reminding me of the peoples’ resistance to strip mining going on today in Harlan County, Kentucky. This important story would not have reached us without the reporting of Amapola.

On investigation, I found that Amapola, a project only three years old, needs financial support. The project sells photos, mostly of Guerrero, as a way to raise funds, and the high quality of these photos blew me away. I’m not comfortable buying online, so I came up with the idea of bringing Marlén to Cuyamaca College in San Diego where I teach. She couldn’t get a visa, but the photos could come! 

Franyelli Garcia, La Niña de la Milpa

For the event, Una foto por la Libertad Cinco de Mayo, I printed 18 enlarged photos. Out of donations made to support the event — my union, an AFT local, donated the first $500 — I bought wood and made the frames myself.

Thanks to a heartening outpouring of support, we succeeded in bringing attention to both the journalism exposing Guerrero’s social-political conditions as well as the art created and donated to support Amapola. The project is now using the money we raised to start a new section of Amapola news on migration and border issues.

Marlén, so many journalists have been murdered. Are you afraid?

Marlén Castro: No, I’m not afraid. And the danger, nothing new, dates back to 2006 when President Calderón declared a “War on Drugs” and sent troops into states like Guerrero to battle the cartels. But the government actually waged this “war” against the population, not against criminal elements. The vast majority of those killed or disappeared turned out to be young, poor, and male, between the ages of 25 and 29.

The United States enabled the militarization of the “war on drugs” for decades. The US supplied the money and guns, México supplied the bodies.

The US press loves to emphasize the negative about México. How can we in the US combat the negative narratives?

Marlén Castro: We don’t see Amapola as an “alternative” press. Amapola gives a multi-dimensional view of reality. US media should also use reporting as an intentional provocation: to surface the questions that become obvious when you amplify the voices of the voiceless.