It’s July 2024. The sun is at its peak, and in an open field, a group of teenagers between the ages of 15 and 20 are celebrating an American football game whose score was tied at halftime.
While the players rest and hydrate, the first beats of what seemed like an electronic music song that ended up becoming an ode to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) begin to sound through the speakers in the stands.
None of the attendees seems alarmed that speeches praising organized crime are being played at a sporting event. “It’s kids’ music,” comments a father from a distance, unable to fully understand the multiple references to criminal organizations narrated in the song, either due to the generation gap or because the area isn’t located in states like Jalisco or Michoacán, but rather between the borders of Mexico City and the State of Mexico.
Decades ago, the corrido was considered the preferred subgenre of regional Mexican music, conveying stories of drug traffickers or criminal organizations to the point of becoming part of Mexico’s “narcoculture.” The formula was the same: guitars, tubas, trombones, tololoches, and accordions accompanying lyrics that narrated the exploits or life of some prominent figure in the country’s underworld.
Over the years, and with the fusion of other musical genres, the corrido became progressive and later fell into disuse, becoming popular among new generations and internationally. While it doesn’t necessarily have to be about drug trafficking or criminals, the security situation in Mexico has made this product not only a reflection of the country’s reality but also a propaganda medium through which criminal organizations sought to build their social base.
Today, corridos remain popular among the Mexican public, and although local and US governments are beginning to seek ways to ban them, criminal organizations have extended their narratives to other musical genres popular among younger generations, as is beginning to happen with the cartel led by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as El Mencho.
2,394 / 5,000
2,394 / 5,000
