# John Ross (activist)

John Ross (March 11, 1938 – January 17, 2011) was an American author, poet, journalist, and activist who lived in Mexico and wrote extensively on the country's politics, its people and leftwing political movements.

## Early life

Born in New York City, Ross was raised in Soho before it was recognized as a neighborhood. Upon graduating from the Bronx High School of Science, he become part of the Beat movement. As a young man, Ross migrated to Mexico in the late 1950s with his wife Norma and youngest daughter Dylan, living in Michoacán with his family from 1956 to 1962.

## Activism

In 1962, returned to the United States where he became one of the earliest draft resisters in America during the Vietnam War, for which he was prosecuted. He served time in federal prison at California's Terminal Island.[1][2]
Upon his release from prison Ross resumed living in San Francisco and began organizing a San Francisco chapter of the Progressive Labor Party from a storefront in the Mission District. From there, he moved to Arcata, California, in the early 1970s.

## Writing

Active as a journalist living and writing in Mexico from the mid-1980s, Ross moved full-time to Mexico City in the early 1990s, dedicating himself to his journalism and writing non-fiction books and poetry.
A prolific journalist, Ross wrote many articles for San Francisco periodical CounterPunch and Pacific News Service, and the Mexico City daily La Jornada. Since 1993, when Ross first broke the story in the Anderson Valley Advertiser, he regularly covered the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (also known as the EZLN or Zapatistas) rebellion in Chiapas province, his articles appearing in both English and Spanish language news publications.
Ross covered political corruption in Mexico and the United States, the effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), on Mexico's subsistence agriculture, and the Iraq War, and potential environmental threats from the introduction of genetically modified plants— in particular those utilizing genetic use restriction technology. His articles appeared in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, The Nation, CounterPunch, The Progressive, La Jornada, and The Rag Blog.
Ross was the author of ten books, including a gritty portrait of his beloved Mexico City, El Monstruo: Dread and Redemption in Mexico City.
His work reflected a deep and abiding interest in rebel movements such as the Zapatistas in southern Chiapas state. He wrote several books about the Zapatistas (the 1995 American Book Award-winning Rebellion from the Roots, The War Against Oblivion, and ¡ZAPATISTAS! Making Another World Possible), as well as a somewhat autobiographical memoir (Murdered by Capitalism), and several chapbooks of poetry. Lastly, he had initiated the publication of Iraqi Girl: Diary of a Teenage Girl in Iraq.
In early 2003 he traveled to Iraq as a freelance reporter, voluntarily serving as a "human shield" to help protect Iraqi civilians during the U.S.-led invasion. The volunteers were eventually forced out of the country because they were critical of the Iraqi government's choice of sites to protect.

## Death

Ross died of liver cancer in Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán, Mexico, surrounded by his friends and family. Ross is survived by his oldest daughter Dylan, his son, notable record producer Dante Ross, his youngest daughter Carla and his granddaughters, Honore Ford and Zoe Ross Murray.