The United States and Mexico, Poverty, Drug War Violence and Narcocorridos Sergio Aguayo and Rodrigo Pena Gonzalez - Reforma
go to original May 15, 2014

The culture of violence stretches across the region where we live. Does it do any good for the government to ban hate music?

It is natural for violence to be expressed musically; it is an inherent part of the human condition. It is equally true that music transcends borders, and countries along the Caribbean Basin have always exchanged chords that reflect the joys, jealousies and dreams of their societies.

Forty years ago, the musical group Los Tigres del Norte sparked a cultural revolution with their album Contraband and Betrayal. In this cross-border love story Emilio Varela, the Mexican, and Camelia, the Texan, drive from Tijuana to Los Angeles in a car with its tires filled with marijuana. When they get paid, Emilio tells her that with his share he is going to “start your life over," because he is going away with the "mistress of his life." Offended, Camelia lets off steam by firing seven bullets at him. The original video is remarkable for its ingenuity, its modest set, and the actors.

In the eighties, Gangsta Rap shook the U.S. with dark, aggressive, violent stories about life in the ghetto. In Crooked Ass Nigga, by Tupac Shakur, an African-American carries a nine-millimeter Glock pistol in the trunk of a car for cleaning the streets of "mothafucka's," some of whom are the police. They appear in the videos wearing lavish clothing and flashy accessories, and women are reduced to sex toys. Some of these attitudes would later shift to the Reggaeton of Central America and the Caribbean, which has a song called Agárrala, pégala, azótala [Grab Her, Hit Her, Spank Her]. Isn’t it obvious who they are talking about?

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

Translated by Thomas Mosley

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