If you think drug traffickers are universally objects of derision, think again. In Mexico, they’re as likely to be seen as swashbuckling heroes, the Robin Hoods of Mexico’s 21st century.
In Sinaloa, people are more apt to rail against the federal forces — who are trying to rein in the cartels – seeing them as the invaders, while looking at the drug traffickers as their saviors. And, sometimes, who can blame them? The drug traffickers have ingratiated themselves to the Sinaloans, used to impoverished living conditions, by building them houses, providing medicine and giving Christmas gifts. They give generously to local politicians. They help build churches and schools. They’re protected by government officials.
The drug traffickers are so popular, they are immortalized in song through “narco corridos,” or drug ballads. The songs, banned on TV and the radio, are extremely popular on the street. The songs are often compared to US ballads featuring Jesse James or Pancho Villa.
Born along with the country’s independence in the 1820s, the corrido reached its peak during the 1910-1917 Revolution. Narco corridos became popular in the 1970s and 80s. A 1972 song by the Tigers of the North (Los Tigres del Norte) tells of Camelia the Texan, whose boyfriend brings a load of marijuana to Los Angeles in their car’s tires. When he sells it, he attempts to dump her. But she pulls out a gun and shoots him. “All the police found was the fired pistol; of the money and Camelia, nothing more was ever known,” says the song.
Another song you can hear blasting from low-rider cars and pickup trucks goes like this: “I’m one of the players in the Sierra where the opium poppy grows…. I like risky action, I like to do cocaine, I walk right behind death with a beautiful woman on each arm…. I’ve got an AK-47 for anyone who wants to try me.”
Sinaloan Chalino Sanchez (see photo, above), known as “El Valiente,” popularized narco corridos and drug traffickers in the 1990s. Chalino proved himself a tough guy when, at age 15, he shot the man who raped his sister. When he ended up in an L.A. jail, Mexican inmates hired him to write songs for them – and a star was born. Chalino became rich and famous by creating folk heroes out of drug dealers.
Although Chalino met a violent end in 1992, he was only one of many narco corrido composers to glorify the drug world. The songs have become such a part of Mexican culture, they are even included in a book, “100 Corridos: The Heart of Mexican Song,” that was distributed to Mexico’s grade-school libraries.
The lyrics to one of the songs, “The Red Car Gang,” describes Mexican drug traffickers shooting it out with Texas Rangers: “They say they came from the south/In a red car/Carrying 100 kilos of cocaine/bound for Chicago …
Another song describes female drug traffickers who poisoned police with opium to protect a drug shipment, then praises “The Lord of the Skies,” the nickname for the deceased drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes: “They caught him alive/but they couldn’t pin anything on him/ now they can display him dead/on trumped-up charges."
The Mexican music "gangsta scene" is alive and well in many cities, where packed clubs host a primarily Mexican audience of drug dealers who have corridos written about them.
The popularity of the narco corrido songs adds to the burden President Felipe Calderon has to deal with in fighting the drug traffickers. It’s not easy to take on local heroes who have “made good,” in their silk shirts, cowboy hats and snakeskin boots – even though they are as likely to blow away innocent civilians as their own kind in their war to dominate the drug trafficking business in Mexico.
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