# The Two Faces of Fear: Violence and Inequality in the Mexican Metropolis ![Ana Villareal Photo](/sites/g/files/omnuum12451/files/styles/hwp_5_4__480x385/public/2025-09/Tuesday%20Seminar%20Photo%20Template%20%283%29.jpg?itok=aCK-MCkK) #### calendar\_today Date and Time **October 21, 2025** 12:00PM - 01:30PM EDT #### pin\_drop Location **CGIS South, S216** [1730 Cambridge St Cambridge, MA 02138 United States ]() [ Registration Link arrow\_circle\_right ](https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_yZSkVFivQ9GWbLWyxZeuUA#/registration) Over the past two decades, increased criminal and state violence has profoundly transformed everyday life in Mexico. This book talk will draw on two years of qualitative fieldwork conducted during a major turf war in Monterrey, Mexico to trace the far-reaching impact of fear and violence on social ties, daily practices, and everyday spaces. The case brings two seemingly contradictory faces of fear into focus—its ability to both isolate and concentrate people and resources, deepening inequality—with relevance beyond Mexico and the "war on drugs." **Speaker** **Ana Villarreal,** Associate Professor of Sociology, Boston University; Madero Fellow at DRCLAS. Moderated by **Steven Levitsky**, Professor of Government, Harvard University; Director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies. **Alisha Holland**, Gates Professor of Developing Societies, Government Department, Harvard University. **Frances Hagopian**, Jorge Paulo Lemann Senior Lecturer on Government, Harvard University. --- **About the Speaker** **Ana Villarreal** is a sociologist specializing in the study of violence, emotions, urban dynamics, and their aggravating impact on socio-spatial divides in Latin America. She is Associate Professor of Sociology at Boston University and the author of The Two Faces of Fear: Violence and Inequality in the Mexican Metropolis (Oxford University Press, 2024). **About the Moderator** **Steven Levitsky** is David Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies and Professor of Government, Director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard. He is also a Senior Democracy Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a Senior Fellow at the Kettering Foundation. His research focuses on democracy and authoritarianism, political parties, weak and informal institutions, and most recently, the crisis of democracy in the United States. He and Daniel Ziblatt are authors of How Democracies Die, which was a New York Times best-seller and was published in 30 languages, and Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point. Levitsky has written or edited 11 other books, including Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America: Argentine Peronism in Comparative Perspective (Cambridge University Press 2003), Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes after the Cold War (with Lucan Way) (Cambridge University Press, 2010), and Revolution and Dictatorship: The Violent Origins of Durable Authoritarianism (with Lucan Way) (Princeton University Press, 2022). He and Lucan Way are currently writing a book on the sources of global democratic resilience in the 21st Century. **Alisha Holland** is the Gates Professor of Developing Societies in the Department of Government at Harvard University. Her research examines the comparative political economy of development, with a focus on urban politics, social policy, and Latin America. She is the author of *Forbearance as Redistribution: The Politics of Informal Welfare in Latin America* (Cambridge University Press), which explores state enforcement practices around property law violations such as squatting, street vending, and electricity theft. Her current book project studies the politics of large infrastructure projects in Latin America. Holland’s broader interests include law, migration, crime control, subnational governance, and corruption. Before joining the Harvard faculty, she was an Assistant Professor at Princeton University and a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. She holds an A.B. from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University. **Frances Hagopian** is Jorge Paulo Lemann Senior Lecturer on Government at Harvard University. She specializes in the comparative politics of Latin America, with emphasis on democratization, political representation, political economy, and religion and politics. She is the author of *Reorganizing Representation in Latin America* (Cambridge University Press, 2014) and *Traditional Politics and Regime Change in Brazil* (Cambridge University Press, 1996), and editor or co-editor of several volumes, including *Religious Pluralism, Democracy, and the Catholic Church in Latin America* (University of Notre Dame Press, 2009) and *The Third Wave of Democratization in Latin America: Advances and Setbacks* (Cambridge University Press, 2005, with Scott Mainwaring). Her current research focuses on the development of social welfare regimes in Brazil and the political economy of inequality in Latin America. Hagopian has previously taught at the University of Notre Dame, Tufts University, and Harvard, and has held visiting positions at the London School of Economics, MIT, and Nuffield College, Oxford. ###### This event is presented in collaboration with the [Weatherhead Center for International Affairs](https://wcfia.harvard.edu/). 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