Quote by Juan Villoro: “Every country is a wound that its inhabitants call home.”

No nation is innocent — every place has been built through violence, injustice, and painful history. Yet people love their countries despite and because of that darkness. Home is not a perfect place; it is a complicated attachment to somewhere shaped by suffering as much as by belonging.

Mexico in 2010 was in the midst of the catastrophic drug war, with tens of thousands killed and entire communities displaced by cartel violence. Villoro was among the intellectuals confronting the gap between official national pride and the reality of mass violence, questioning what patriotism and belonging meant in such circumstances.

Mexican novelist, journalist, and essayist whose work ranges from children's fiction to serious political commentary on Mexican society. His novel El testigo won the Herralde Prize in 2004, and he is considered one of the most versatile and perceptive voices in contemporary Mexican letters.