The Letters of Discord: What Narco-Corridos Talk About in the Crosshairs of Prohibition

He has just begun to sing El de la codeína, when the sound technicians cut the audio of Nathanael Cano. “They say pa’l narco / It’s just the white dust to relieve us, / But that’s a lie [...].” The instruments continue to sound and he continues to sing, but the speakers are off. On Saturday night, the audience of Aguascalientes’ palenque has insisted that he sing another of his songs, Horno Azulado. Cano takes the microphone: “Ask for it from hi…

The narcocorridos are a musical genre that has been banned in various localities of our country, because it is argued that violent messages are reproduced and the practices of organized crime are romanticized.Even, the president Claudia Sheinbaum started a program in which the creation of music and lyrics that are related to patriotism and that seeks to put aside the topic of narco.Recently, Los Alegres del Barranco won an amparo to sing narcoco…