For Mexico's Hottest Drug Balladeer, Music Has a Cost Agence France-Presse
go to original April 15, 2014

El Komander has gained popularity in Mexico for his violence-drenched "narco-corridos", a popular musical genre that sings about drugs, violence and women. (AFP/berndmulder1)

TEXCOCO - “El Komander” struts on stage, pours expensive whisky into a fan's mouth and sings about grenade launchers - just another wild night for a Mexican singer who has faced bans for eulogizing drug lords.

Wearing a black leather jacket and military fatigue pants, Alfredo Rios took his show to 5,500 people in Texcoco, in the state of Mexico, a region of 15 million people enduring a spike in murders this year.

The man with the short-cropped hair and beard is among the most popular performers of “narco-corridos” — musical histories of the life and death of drug kingpins sung to a polka-like beat, driven by an accordion, guitar, drums and tuba.

The genre has gained many fans among Hispanics who live across the border in the United States. Rios appeared in the US documentary “Narco Cultura,” which describes the cross-border fascination with Mexico's drug culture.

Lately, though, the thirty-something star has been less than popular with the authorities, especially in states that have struggled to tame violence.

Read the rest at The Daily Sun

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!