Six Months in Mexico
Encyclopedia
Six Months in Mexico is a book by Nellie Bly
Nellie Bly
Nellie Bly was the pen name of American pioneer female journalist Elizabeth Jane Cochran. She remains notable for two feats: a record-breaking trip around the world in emulation of Jules Verne's character Phileas Fogg, and an exposé in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from...
that she wrote after her travels through Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. She took the initiative to work as a foreign correspondent at the age of 21. At that point she had been writing for the newspaper The Dispatche, but had become dissatisfied with having to write for the women's pages.
In the book she describes the lives and customs of the people of Mexico
Mexican people
Mexican people refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity....
and the poverty of the common people. She was struck by the widespread addiction to playing the lottery
Lottery
A lottery is a form of gambling which involves the drawing of lots for a prize.Lottery is outlawed by some governments, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of regulation of lottery by governments...
, noting that people would even pawn
Pledge (law)
A pledge is a bailment or deposit of personal property to a creditor to secure repayment for some debt or engagement, The term is also used to denote the property which constitutes the security....
their clothes in order to buy tickets. She returned to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
after reporting about the imprisonment of journalists by the then a dictator Porfirio Díaz
Porfirio Díaz
José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori was a Mexican-American War volunteer and French intervention hero, an accomplished general and the President of Mexico continuously from 1876 to 1911, with the exception of a brief term in 1876 when he left Juan N...
put her in danger of ending up in prison herself.
Nellie Bly would go on to write a second travel book, Around the World in 72 Days, telling the story of how she became the first to circumnavigate the globe.
External links
- Hathi trust digital library copy of the book