Standing Up to Armed Militias in the Borderlands: Author Patrick Strickland on Arivaca and Community Resistance

The author on his new book “The Marauders,” the rise of far-right extremism in Europe and the American borderlands and what communities can learn from Arivaca, Arizona

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The Border Chronicle Podcast
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January 25, 2022

Today I’m talking with journalist Patrick Strickland about his new book The Marauders: Standing up to Vigilantes in the American Borderlands which will be released in February through Penguin Random House. Patrick’s new book delves into the history of armed far-right militias in the small town of Arivaca on the Arizona-Mexico border. Arivaca’s history includes a tragic murder in 2009 committed by militia members against two of the town’s residents—one of them a 9-year-old girl.

A decade later, when armed militia men return in the Trump-era, the community of Arivaca forms a resistance campaign to push the militia out. And the story of how Arivaca comes together and forms this resistance is what makes The Marauders, I think, a particularly important book for border communities.

Currently the news editor at the Dallas Observer, Strickland for many years reported in the Middle East and Europe for Al Jazeera and other news outlets where he documented the rise of far-right extremist groups and anti-fascist movements. His work overseas led to his first book Alerta Alerta: Snapshots of Europe’s Anti-Fascist Struggle. His experience chronicling far-right movements in Europe, gives Strickland a uniquely global perspective when writing about the armed militias here at home, which are just one facet of a growing, global trend that threatens democracy everywhere.

Author
Melissa del Bosque

Melissa del Bosque is Co-founder and Executive Director of The Border Chronicle. Melissa has written about the U.S.-Mexico border since 1998 for various media outlets, including ProPublica, The New Yorker, The Guardian, The Texas Observer, and The Intercept.

Her work has been recognized with numerous U.S. and international journalism awards, including a Gabo Award and the Internacional Rey de España de Periodismo award, as the U.S.-Mexico investigations editor for Lighthouse Reports. In 2020, del Bosque received the RFK Human Rights Journalism Award as part of a ProPublica group reporting project “Inside the Border Patrol.” In 2016, she received the Hillman Prize for her investigative feature “Death on Sevenmile Road” about the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border. In 2015, del Bosque’s four-part series with The Guardian on migrant deaths in South Texas won an Emmy and a National Magazine Award. 

Del Bosque is also the author of Bloodlines: The True Story of a Drug Cartel, the FBI and the Battle for a Horse-Racing Dynasty. She has a Master’s in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin, a Master’s in Public Health from the Texas A&M School of Rural Public Health, and a Bachelor’s in poetry and Creative Writing from San Francisco State University.

In her spare time, Melissa loves to travel, spend time with her family, and explore the Sonoran Desert.

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