narco-corrido - Vanderbilt University

Helena Simonett
Center for Latin American Studies
Vanderbilt University
El tacuache con norteño
Narco-music
Narco = short for narcotraficante, drug trafficker
Narco-music = music related to drug trafficking
or traffickers; either accompanied by the
accordion-based conjunto norteño or the banda
sinaloense
Corrido
•
corrido, a traditional Mexican
folk ballad that flourished
between 1880 and 1930; epic,
narrative, strophic; poetry
largely based on preset
formulas, set to a simple tune
based on three chords
Corrido
• narco-corrido, a recent development of
the corrido that describes, apotheosizes,
comments, or laments the deeds of those
involved in the drug cultivation and trade
Drug cultivation
• 1900 Chinese immigrants cultivated opium poppies
• Legally grown in Mazatlán’s public gardens
• 1927 prohibition of narcotics; opium houses closed
• U.S. financed Mexcio’s narcotics production to supply
U.S. and allies with morphine during WW2
• 1960s U.S. consumption stimulated marihuana
productions
• 1972 collapse of heroin business in Europe and Middle
East
• Gunfights, murders, executions, gang rivalry, escalating
violence
• Mid-1970s: narcos, a well established subgroup with
own cultural values
• 1976 Operation Condor: large-scale eradication
program
• Narcos relocated to Guadalajara
• Local economy down; migration northward
• 1982: Mexico’s economic collapse; peso devaluation
• Devastating earthquakes (Mexico City, …)
• Mid-1980s: deteriorating oil prices
• Unintended consequences of Operation Condor:
 Narcos adapted to the new enforcement climate by
investing in protection, U.S. weapons, bribery
 Drug trade grew more violent
 Culiacán: “the new Chicago of the huarache gangsters”
(drug-related murder rate in 1986: 5 per day)
 Narcos became important for the national economy
 Narcos increased their influence on local culture by
sponsoring and patronizing leisure activities
Norteño
• accordion-driven music,
originated in northern
Mexico in the late 1800s
• 1950s up-dated norteño
groups entered commercial
market
• 1990s immigration-related
issues and narco-corridos
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Banda
•brass band music
•developed on
northwest coast
after the mid-1800s
•1950s bandas
entered city and
local recording
market
•1990s entered
transnational music
circuit
Los Tigres del Norte
(The Tigers of the North)
…from farmhands
to the most
successful
bi-national band
• 1970s
• “Contrabando y traición”
(Contraband and Betrayal)
Nominated for the 1997 Grammy
Award
•
Double album: “Jefe de Jefes” (Boss of Bosses)
Filmed in Alcatraz
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Los Tigres del Norte, “La voz del pueblo” (The People’s Voice)
Excerpt from Al otro lado by Natalia Almada (Altamura Films, 2005)
The narco-music
multi-million-$$$ business
•
San Jose, California-based norteño group
Los Tigres del Norte has symbolized the
epitome of immigrant experience for
generations of Mexican (and Central
American) newcomers
•
a new generation of young fans began to
discover their music in the late 1990s.
The narco-music
multi-million-$$$ business
•
For many young listeners
(especially the secondand third-generation
listeners)
it is not so
much the migrationrelated songs, but rather
the corridos prohibidos
that have struck a
responsive chord.
The narco-music
multi-million-$$$ business
•
Both the young fans
and the “prohibited
corridos” have helped
norteña music to become
even more popular.
Los Tucanes de Tijuana (The Toucans of
Tijuana)
“Mis tres animales”
(My Three Animals)
rooster = marijuana
parakeet = cocaine
goat = heroin
“... my animals are
selling better than the
hamburgers at
McDonalds.”
• Banda El Recodo
Sinaloa’s most
venerate banda
• “La cheyene del
año”
• banderos =
bandidos
•
• Fascination with
outlaws
• criminals or
“social bandits”?
Malverde, “el bandido generoso”
(1870-1909)
Sinaloa’s Robin Hood
bandit
hero
•
folk saint …
• The narco-saint:
• Malverde’s chapel in
Culiacán
•
… and near Tijuana
… a commodity
•
•
Malverde beer
• Two of
Chalino’s
homemade
cassettes,
which include
corridos
as well as a
number of
commissione
d corridos
Music in Mexican L.A. in the 1990s
•
The technobanda movement of the
1990s helped spur a new interest in ruralrooted Mexican music styles: banda &
norteño
• In “Nuevo L.A.”
the narcomusic
was discovered
by the major
record labels
Chalino’s legacy
1960-92
1974-98
•
Chalinillo
1979-2006
Chalino’s legacy: Adán
1992
•
2004
The valientes (tough guys)
•
Commercial corrido
Commissioned corrido
Example: Los Tucanes de Tijuana
Example: El Tigrillo Palma
recorded on CD
live in nightclubs
for a mass audience
for insiders
by professional songwriters
by musicians and other insiders
“I”-protagonist
“he”-protagonist
true or fictive
facts provided by protagonist/friend
Norteño/Banda Revival in L.A. 2000s
• “Regional Mexican”
•
Lupillo Rivera: “The hottest
Latino sensation in 2001”
Changes in the narco-corridista image
1991
•
2001