Nota roja
Announcements and decrees of such were posted publicly on streets and plazas of New Spain as well, having red seals (notas rojas) to indicate the approval of ecclesiastic authorities.
[1] The development of commercial newspapers in the 19th century gave rise to sections dedicated to violent stories, a common occurrence for Mexico in the midst of various wars and political instability along with crime.
[1] One famous single sheet nota roja was published in 1899 by Antonio Vanegas Arroyo, sold on the streets with cries of “¡Sensacional y terrible noticia!
[4] By the 1970s, entire newspapers were devoted to nothing more than nota roja stories, including Alarma and La Prensa, which became extremely popular and even sold in the United States.
The antecedent of this kind of television is a show called Mujer, Caso de la Vida Real, which has been on the air over ten years and mostly deals with domestic issues and violence.
The first shows of this kind were Hard Copy and Ocurrió Así, both produced in the United States, but they have been followed by Primer Impacto, A Sangre Fría, Detrás del Video, Expediente, Cámara y Delito and Ciudad Desnuda.
These have become part of the popular culture and have attracted the attention of public officials, who have accused these shows of promoting and commercializing violence, making it seem more common than it is.
Writer Jorge Ibargüengoitia that he read the nota roja frequently as he felt that they reflected the morality of the times in a most direct way, and featured common people who normally did not appear in the newspaper.
[6] Nota roja has also provided inspiration to novelists and other writers, such as Nicaraguan Sergio Ramírez, using the stories to explore the human condition in the modern world.
(eahernandez) Carlos Monsiváis stated that the nota roja converted “the most notorious crimes into an artistic expression and adult fairy tales are seen in acts of blood.”[2] It has influenced Mexican cinema, especially after 1950, when film making became more commercialized.
[4] The genre has been heavily criticized, especially by politicians who accuse it of making violent crime, especially that related to the drug trade, worse than it is, and newspaper have been asked to tone down such coverage.
[6][9] However, a study done in Puebla that while most read the nota roja out of morbid curiosity, most stated that it primarily invoked feelings of sadness, disgust or anger, rather than a desire to imitate what they saw.
[11] He began by taking photographs of car crashes in front of his father's business in the San Cosme neighborhood of Mexico City and continued by working most for La Prensa until his retirement.
