CANCELLED: Poet, journalist, activist John Ross discusses and signs his book: El Monstruo: Dread and Redemption in Mexico City

Mexico City, the mother of all megacities, is known for chaos, overpopulation, and an extreme gap between rich and poor. John Ross—poet, journalist, activist—first visited the city in 1957 with fellow Bay Area Beats as an expatriate escape. He eventually moved to the place he has come to call “The Monster” just one week after the devastating earthquake of 1985, which killed 30,000 people. EL MONSTRUO is his gritty, vibrant People’s History of 23 million, told from the ground up.