Uncovering Mexico
Jeremy Schwartz is the Mexico correspondent for Cox Newspapers. He is based in Mexico City.What's on this page?
All the entries posted on December 13, 2006.
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Home > Uncovering Mexico > Archives > 2006 > December > 13
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Dangerous time to sing narco-corridos
You can add another group to the police officers, military members and newspaper reporters targeted by Mexico’s ruthless drug cartels: singers. A week after popular singer Valentin Elizalde was gunned down after a show in Reynosa, fellow corrido crooner Lupillo Rivera was the subject of a drive-by shooting in Guadalajara this past weekend.
Rivera escaped unharmed and has not blamed the cartels, but the incidents have created a scary atmosphere for singers of “narco-corridos,” the hugely popular folk songs detailing the inner-workings of the drug world.
The group Control and singers Beto Quintanilla and Vicente Fernandez have canceled shows, reportedly because of safety worries. The group Paloma says it will no longer sing those corridos that might cause them trouble, the daily Reforma reported Tuesday.
Often described as gangsta rap set to a polka beat, narco-corridos are big sellers in Mexico and often memorialize the big capos with chronicles of their exploits. Sometimes the narco-corridos take sides.
Elizalde began and finished his Reynosa show with the song “To My Enemies,” which supposedly was taken as a threat to the Zetas, the armed faction of the Gulf Cartel. Elizalde is from the state of Sinaloa, home to Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who has been at war with the Gulf Cartel for years.
