Pubdate: Mon, 7 Apr 2008
Source: Christian Science Monitor (US)
Copyright: 2008 The Christian Science Publishing Society
Contact: http://www.csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/encryptmail.pl?ID=CFF0C5E4
Website: http://www.csmonitor.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/83
Author: Sara Miller Llana, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/area/Mexico (Mexico)

ODES TO MEXICAN DRUG GANGS LOSE THEIR APPEAL

A String of Killings of Musicians WHO Sing About Drug Cartels Has Led 
Many to Quit the Genre.

Mazatlan, Mexico - Songwriter Oswaldo Valdez stands with his brass 
band, "Los Jaibos, on a street corner here, hoping to get hired for a 
private performance that evening.

The real money, he knows, comes when a drug dealer requests not just 
a gig but a personal tribute. Mr. Valdez will sit down, listen to the 
dealer's story, and write him a narcocorrido.

The decades-old genre, which recounts tales of cultivating marijuana 
in the sierra and escaping gunfire on the streets, has been blamed by 
many for lauding criminals as heroes, much in the way rap music is 
often criticized in the US.

Calls for censorship over the years have irked musicians. But that 
stance is beginning to shift as drug-trade violence has escalated 
throughout Mexico, in number and brutality, and several narcocorrido 
artists have been killed as a result.

The recent string of deaths is prompting many, like Valdez, to think 
twice about composing the lucrative, but potentially life-threatening, lyrics.

"I will work with the low-key guys, but I will not write about 
murder, because then you, the singer, become a target," says Valdez, 
who's based in the state Sinaloa, the cradle of Mexico's 
narco-culture. "And we have to admit, it can generate violence, at 
least between the drug traffickers."

Murders' Chilling Effects

Among the musicians killed in the past year, it isn't certain that 
their lyrics landed them in trouble. One of the best-known singers, 
Sergio Gomez, who led the group K-Paz de la Sierra, was killed after 
a concert in the state of Michoacan in December, but was best-known 
for his romantic ballads. Observers say some musicians may have been 
victims of domestic disputes or even caught up in drug trafficking themselves.

Still, a trend - real or perceived - has chilled artists.

More than a dozen have been killed in the past two years, and that's 
only the singers who make the news. In 2006, Valentin Elizalde was 
killed after his song, "To All My Enemies," became a hit. Jesus Rey 
David Alfaro, known as "El Gallito," was killed in Tijuana in February.

While corridos have been around since the Mexican Revolution, drug 
traffickers didn't become the music's heroes until half a century 
later. Calls for censorship came almost immediately, at least since 
the release of the 1970s song "Contraband and Betrayal" by Los Tigres 
del Norte, says Elijah Wald, author of "Narcocorrido: A Journey Into 
the Music of Drugs, Guns, and Guerrillas." In recent years, 
politicians have called for restrictions and radio bans.

Though musicians generally resisted calls for censorship, some now 
publicly support more controls. Julio Preciado, one of Mexico's most 
famous banda singers, used to sing narcocorridos, but at a recent 
concert in Mazatlan he belted his more famous themes of love and 
unrequited love.

"I stopped out of respect to my family, he says, in an interview in 
his tour bus after the concert. "But it's very complicated. It 
generates a lot of money. I don't criticize those who do it. They are 
like journalists.... The interpreters aren't at fault."

But even if their work is merely reflective in glorifying the 
cartels' lawlessness, neither are they contributing to a solution, he 
says. "It's much more dangerous now. And we have enough violence already."

His concert, which featured five groups - including the Tucanes de 
Tijuana, one of the most popular narcocorrido bands today - was an 
homage to producer Marco Abdala, who used to represent Mr. Preciado 
and was kidnapped and killed three months ago in Mazatlan.

Narcocorridos are usually spun from nortenos, a polka-style genre 
that originated in rural Mexico and is distinguished from other 
country music by its use of the accordion. But musicians have used 
all styles, including the brass bandas popular in Sinaloa, to produce 
narcocorridos.

Where Narcocorridos Are Popular

The music appeals to the poor, especially those from the foothills in 
Sinaloa, where many major drug lords get their start. "This is what 
people like here: drugs, mafias," says Bernardo Felix, a resident of 
the city Culiacan who points to the words of thanks left at the temple.

Narcocorridos are also popular here because drug trafficking is seen 
as a way out of rural poverty, says Rigoberto Rodriguez, a historian 
from the Autonomous University of Sinaloa in Culiacan, and the music 
glamorizes that escape.

Through the 1990s, narcocorridos exploded in popularity, says Mateus 
Garzon, a concert promoter who helped organize the tribute in 
Mazatlan. But these days, he says, "I think all of them are going to 
start to think twice now about singing narcocorridos."

Not all fans will be disappointed. Though Felipe Alcocer says he came 
to the concert to see the Tucanes de Tijuana, he says that, of all 
their music, the narcocorridos appeal least to him.

The label narcocorrido is often applied to all songs that deal with 
drugs, but Prof. Rodriguez says one should distinguish between 
styles. Some groups do promote illicit activity; others, like Los 
Tigres del Norte, write about society's ills as a form of social 
criticism, he says.

Valdez, the songwriter, who also plays the accordian, admits that 
narcocorridos are tempting. To play at a family party, his band often 
gets $1,000, he says. A narcocorrido can bring in $4,000. But Valdez 
says he'd rather be known for ballads. He got uncomfortably close to 
the violence two months ago when his band was contracted to write a 
narcocorrido for a party near Culiacan. The event ended abruptly when 
someone was gunned down a few blocks away.

Such a situation can raise a singer's popularity. "But it's not worth 
it," Valdez says. 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake