Abstract
This chapter describes the evolution of the popular Mexican narcocorridos genre, the drug ballads that, according to their critics and the authorities, glamorize crime and criminals. In the beginning, the songs told stories about the drug business with a certain objectivity but also with admiration for the drug lords. But since the nineties they began to express the point of view of the people involved in the “business,” undermining the basic assumptions of the whole war on drugs. Since the beginning of this century, however, nearly a hundred musicians of the narcocorrido genre have been murdered and the reasons for these murders cannot be dissociated from the evolution of the drug cartels—fundamentally their fragmentation—and of the war on drugs in Mexico.
With thanks to Francisco Lasarte.
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Notes
- 1.
The term narcos refers to everybody involved in the drug business, from the big bosses to the mules. Remarkable is that narco also is used as a prefix, a rare phenomenon in the Spanish language, but telling for the impact of the “business”.
- 2.
Olivas was lucky, he survived.
- 3.
Los Angeles is the big center of narcocorridos.
- 4.
Sam Dillon: “San Luis Potosi Journal; Mexico’s Troubadours Turn From Amor to Drugs”, 19.2.1999.
- 5.
The three animals are: the parrot, the goat, and the rooster. Slang for: coke, heroine and marihuana.
- 6.
More than 40% of Mexicans live in poverty: the drug business and immigration to the USA are options to have a better life. This, of course, does not mean all of the narcos are from humble origins. The business is, because of the enormous sums of money involved, also attractive for other groups—many state governors worked for the cartels—, but narcocorridos center on the maldita pobreza as the reason why many people become narcos. The genre also blames the authorities and their corruption for the poverty a lot of Mexicans live in.
- 7.
For a portrait of Chalino Sánchez, see: Sam Quinones (2001) True Tales from Another Mexico. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque. More than a 100 corridos have been made about Chalino.
- 8.
Martin Hodgson: “Death in the Midday Sun”. The Observer, 2004, September 19. In the same interview, he also admits he writes songs on commission: “I have a lot of fans who are … well, I call them business people. Mafia people, if you like. It’s nice to sing about them. It’s my job. If somebody pays me to do a corrido, I’ll do it. If they’re a Mafioso or not, it’s all the same to me”.
- 9.
It is hard to refuse an invitation, even for famous singers or groups: a refusal could be seen as an insult. On the other hand, the big bosses pay well: fees from 15 to 250 thousand dollars are mentioned. Sometimes artists have been arrested—and almost immediately afterwards released—during raids by the police or the army at those parties, like, for example, Ramón Ayala, Los Cadetes de Linares, Remmy Valenzuela. Well-known artists who appear at narco parties are probably well treated. The unknown, local singers and groups do not have it so good. In an article by Jorge Damián Méndez Lozano on the website of SinEmbargo, entitled “‘You Won’t Leave until I Tell You’, musicians tell of their experience at narco parties” (16.9.2018), six singers relate how badly they were treated: they had to continue to play for a long time, were threatened, humiliated, and sometimes were not even paid.
- 10.
Many well-known artists like, for example, El Komander, admit they made corridos por encargo. Sums mentioned range from 10 to 50 thousand dollars a song. Beginning artists are, of course, cheaper. Big capos don’t need to pay artists for corridos because songs about them are, just like books, television series, and movies, very lucrative: crime pays.
- 11.
As was the case with Chalino Sánchez, the sale of albums by Elizalde rocketed sky high after his death. In 1 year three million albums were sold. Immediately after he was murdered 250,000 copies of his last album, Vencedor (The Winner), which includes the “notorious” song A mis enemigos, were made.
- 12.
The reaction of Quintanilla and Quintero were published on the site Univisión.com in 2006, December the 4th (“Desmiente Beto Quintanilla su ‘muerte’”) and the 6th (“Son puros chismes”).
- 13.
Just like his brother, Chuy Quintanilla, who was murdered in 2013 in Texas. Beto died in 2007, officially from a heart attack, though many believe he was killed.
- 14.
They also could stop with narcocorridos and dedicate themselves to the other types of song most of them already have on their repertoire.
- 15.
Zeta is a courageous publication in the violent state of Baja California. Unlike other media in dangerous regions of Mexico, the weekly does not apply any form of self-censorship. The price it paid is, however, high: two staff members have been killed and the founder-editor, Jesús Blancornelas, who miraculously survived an attack of sicarios of the Tijuana Cartel—he was seriously wounded—, has been, since the attack, always protected by military bodyguards.
- 16.
Older bands like Los Razos de Sacramento y Reynaldo and Los Originales de San Juan also use a quite strong and obscene language in their corridos pesados (hardcore corridos).
- 17.
The Three Letters stand for El Teo: Teodoro García Simental. El Muletas is Raydel López. Two of the most notorious killers of the Tijuana cartel. El Teo was the leader of one of the factions into which the cartel split up. He was responsible for hundreds of executions. His “cook” confessed to have dissolved 300 people in acid.
- 18.
El Tigrillo is Francisco Javier Arellano Félix, who followed up his brothers Ramón—killed in February 2002—and Benjamín—arrested in March 2002—as leader of the Tijuana cartel (aka CAF: Cartel Arellano Félix). El Tigrillo was arrested on the 14th of August 2006.
- 19.
In the song Qué cincos mi comandante (What a Fives, Commander), about a drug transport, they sing, probably as an inside joke: “Después yo le echo un 50/Me está parando un 14/Y a lo lejos se divisa/que también se acerca un 12/yo ya no quiero más 15/aquí lo espero a las 11” (Later on I throw a 50 at him/A 14 stops me/In the distance you can see/A 12 is coming near/I don’t want any more 15/and wait here at 11).
- 20.
Their corridos alterados are also called corridos enfermos (sick corridos).
- 21.
In an article titled “This Guy Made a Fortune” (Bloomberg Businessweek, 17.1.18) Adolfo, one of the Valenzuela brothers, says: “[Twiins makes] millions of dollars in revenue from live performances and digital outlets, millions from YouTube, millions in sponsorship.”
- 22.
A daughter and the last wife of Chapo Guzmán, Emma Coronel, also sell products online named after El Chapo.
- 23.
The Valenzuela Brothers also have a branch in Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa. In the Bloomberg Businessweek interview Adolfo Valenzuela also refers to the rumor: “Everyone was saying El Chapo was funding this.”
- 24.
This kind of song could be baptized as “corridos on approval.”
- 25.
Torres Félix was killed by the Army on October 13th 2012.
- 26.
Bands like Los Reyes de Alto Mando (Kings of the High Command), the sicarios musicales of the Caballeros Templarios (The Knights Templar), a cartel that controlled the state of Michoacán, composed the same type of bragging corridos about killing, but were only regionally well known.
- 27.
On a video from 2010 the same governor can be seen dancing to the music of the group Calibre 50. In September 2016, the governor banned appearances by Gerardo Ortiz and Calibre 50, but brought the group Los Tigres del Norte in person from the airport for an appearance where they were able to sing undisturbed their great narcocorrido hits (Riodoce, 19.9.16). A photograph with the famous Tigres is, of course, no bad publicity for a politician.
- 28.
Bizarre, because no obstacles were placed in the way of a much rawer group such as Explosión Norteña. But the enemies of the Tijuana Cartel, which the group praised in its songs, did create obstacles: as already mentioned, Beto Cervantes, the leader of the group, was shot to death.
- 29.
An argument the authorities do not report, but which for many plays a big role in the ban, is the criticism in the corridos of the corruption and involvement of the authorities in the drug business.
- 30.
Zeta 11.8.2006, “Group fired upon” (ZETA investigations from an interview in December 2005).
- 31.
In: Anne-Marie O’Connor, Traditional Ballads in a New Key, L.A. Times, 3.1.1997.
- 32.
The question is whether these could be called corridos at all, since the narrative element often is completely absent.
- 33.
Out of caution, many journalists in “dangerous” areas censure themselves. Tens of journalists have fled from their field of work, and tens more are covered by a government protection program.
References
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Quinones, S. (2001) True tales from another Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press
Ramírez-Pimienta, J. (2004) Del corrido de narcotráfico al narcocorrido: Orígenes y desarrollo del canto a los traficantes, in: Studies in Latin American Popular Culture, XXIII, pp. 21-41
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Wellinga, K. (2021). Praise the Drug Lord: Narcocorridos in Mexico. In: Siegel, D., Bovenkerk, F. (eds) Crime and Music. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49878-8_7
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