Uncle Tommy Gabriel, he played the blue piano
While Frank and Ava Gardener danced the wild Juaurenzi tango
Those were truly golden years my Uncle Tommy said
But everything's gone straight to Hell since Sinatra played Juarez(from) When Sinatra Played Juarez Tom Russell
Basic Information
Ciudad Juárez is a Mexican city close to the American border near Texas. It is one of the centers of the drug trade flowing from Mexico to the United States, and thus one of the primary fronts of the War on Drugs. It has been called the "most violent city in the world outside of active war zones", and suffers from horrendous gang warfare and homicides. There has also been a noteworthy string of homicides targeting young women as well.
The bridge linking Juarez to El Paso Texas, crossing the Rio Grande and thus the Mexican/US border is somewhat iconic and popular in modern cinema. In the early twentieth century - before the war on drugs - the bridge was much less heavily guarded and, as per the flavour text, crossing to and fro across it was more routine.
Sources
Game and Story Use
- Stories in Juárez will work very well for showcasing the dehumanizing aspects of the War on Drugs, and the degeneration of the human spirit in general.
- In campaigns with supernatural aspects, the violence of the supernal should reflect the violence of the mundane. And what's one more supernatural predator in a city with so many human predators?
- Again, as per the flavour text, prior to the immediate present (and the War on Drugs) Juarez was a very different place, far more of a party town in which it was normal to encounter American celebrities and holiday makers.
- Call of Cthulhu players should take note - in the classic 1920s setting, there is no prohibition South of the Bridge.