{"id":6158,"date":"2025-05-04T15:56:50","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T15:56:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/04\/first-trump-targeted-mexicos-drug-cartels-now-its-the-musicians-who-sing-about-them\/"},"modified":"2025-05-04T15:56:50","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T15:56:50","slug":"first-trump-targeted-mexicos-drug-cartels-now-its-the-musicians-who-sing-about-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/04\/first-trump-targeted-mexicos-drug-cartels-now-its-the-musicians-who-sing-about-them\/","title":{"rendered":"First Trump targeted Mexico\u2019s drug cartels. Now it\u2019s the musicians who sing about them"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Saturday night at a rooftop bar in downtown Atlanta, and the band Orden Activa is about to launch into a Mexican ballad. <\/p>\n

What seemed like a shy and reserved audience suddenly transforms as the opening chords of the trotting polka begin. The crowd rises to its feet and sings in Spanish as the dance floor dissolves into a sea of cowboy hats: <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the ruler of the roosters<\/em>
Of the Jalisco cartel.<\/em>
I\u2019ve got fighting cocks<\/em>
Who duel for my crew.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n

With their gently bobbing heads, matching leather jackets and knowing smiles, their act hardly screams controversy \u2013 or at least not to the casual observer. <\/p>\n

Yet last month, a group that sang the very same song \u2013 \u201cEl del Palenque\u201d (\u201cHe of the Cockfighting Arena\u201d) \u2013 was barred from the United States in an unprecedented move that critics say raises troubling questions about free speech in America. <\/p>\n

Their transgression, according to the State Department? \u201cGlorifying (a) drug kingpin.\u201d <\/p>\n

The song is a narcocorrido<\/em>: a ballad about the drug trafficking underworld. The band that wrote it \u2013 Los Alegres del Barranco \u2013 landed in hot water with both US and Mexican authorities recently when they performed the tune in the Mexican city of Zapopan. <\/p>\n

That performance, in which the group sang about the exploits of El Mencho, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, in front of a cartoon portrait of him, not only ended the band\u2019s plans for a US tour but left them the subject of a criminal investigation on their home turf. <\/p>\n

As one of six Mexican drug cartels the Trump administration has declared Foreign Terrorist Organizations, the Jalisco cartel is at the center of growing US-Mexico tensions over cross-border crime. Authorities in both countries took exception when video of the concert went viral. <\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n
This still from video posted by the US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau shows the Mexican band Los Alegres del Barranco performing in front of a cartoon of Mexican drug lord El Mencho.<\/span> <\/div>
From US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau\/X<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The venue where Los Alegres del Barranco performed swiftly apologized; the Jalisco prosecutor\u2019s office vowed to investigate; and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum warned the band may have broken the law. Then the US State Department revoked their visas. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe last thing we need is a welcome mat for people who extol criminals and terrorists,\u201d said US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau in a post on X. \u201cIn the Trump administration, we take seriously our responsibility over foreigners\u2019 access to our country.\u201d The band apologized on Facebook the next day. <\/p>\n

While songs about the drug trade have been censored on and off in Mexico for years, observers say increasing pressure from the Trump administration to clamp down on cartels has fueled a new wave of bans on public performance of narcocorridos in several Mexican states. Even more worryingly, they say, are signs that Mexican bands are beginning to self-censor in the fear that upsetting US authorities could compromise their ability to tour. <\/p>\n

The action against Los Alegres del Barranco is the first time the State Department has punished a Mexican band in this way, according to Elijah Wald, author of an English-language guide to the genre. Some critics paint it as the latest anti-Mexico move by the Trump administration, which has already strained ties with its immigration crackdowns and tariff policies. <\/p>\n

\u201c(These bands) have been saved up to now by the fact that nobody spoke Spanish,\u201d Wald said. \u201cAnd when I say \u2018nobody,\u2019 I mean the people who are enforcing this kind of silliness. The revoking of visas obviously has very little to do with the songs. It has to do with a politics of revoking visas.\u201d <\/p>\n

Old tradition, modern appeal<\/h2>\n

The State Department\u2019s rebuke may have ruined Los Alegres del Barranco\u2019s planned US tour, but it has done little to dent the popularity of either the band or the genre. If anything, it gave both a boost. <\/p>\n

Figures from Billboard show the band subsequently gained over 2 million new listens on streaming services, proof if any were needed of the enduring modern appeal of a genre rooted in 19th<\/sup> century folk music that has long romanticized outlaws, outcasts and underdogs. <\/p>\n

Early corridos or ballads celebrated the exploits of \u201cfamous bandits, generals, sometimes horses, sometimes fighting roosters as well,\u201d according to Sam Quinones, a writer who covers music and the drug trade in Mexico and California. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was almost like a musical newspaper,\u201d Quinones said. \u201cThis became a very common kind of entrenched genre of popular music.\u201d <\/p>\n

During Prohibition in the 1920s, a new subgenre \u2013 the narcocorrido<\/em> \u2013 <\/em>emerged to tell the tales of those smuggling illicit alcohol from Mexico to the United States, explained author Wald. <\/p>\n

A century later and that subgenre is still booming. The most popular musical artist among US YouTube users in 2023 was not Taylor Swift, but the narcocorrido singer Peso Pluma. <\/p>\n

Corrupted art form or moral panic?<\/h2>\n

But experts say a cultural shift took place when drug traffickers began paying musicians to write songs about themselves in the mid-1980s, when the legendary \u201cKing of Corridos\u201d Chalino Sanchez began accepting commissions. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe wasn\u2019t necessarily the first, but he was the key figure in that shift, which significantly changed the economics of the business,\u201d Wald said. \u201cIt meant anybody with money could commission a laudatory corrido.\u201d <\/p>\n

Since then, many singers and groups \u201chave been sponsored by or have performed for specific figures in the narco-world, and are thought of as being aligned with particular cartels,\u201d Wald said, leading to a situation that\u2019s \u201cdefinitely dangerous for the artists.\u201d <\/p>\n

Case in point: Chalino Sanchez was shot dead after a concert in Sinaloa in 1992. His murder remains unsolved. <\/p>\n

Some fans, like Quinones \u2013 who is writing a biography of Sanchez \u2013 are critical of this shift. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe corrido used to be about a simple man going up against power, knowing he was doomed, knowing he was going to die and fighting anyway,\u201d Quinones said. \u201cIt became corrupted, in my opinion, when it became in praise of power, in praise of these bloodthirsty men with enormous power who killed wantonly.\u201d <\/p>\n

Others, though, dismiss the notion that narcocorridos encourage the violence and crime they portray, likening them to gangster-rap, video games or films like The Godfather. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople say, \u2018Oh, parents, don\u2019t let your kid play Call of Duty, or your kid\u2019s gonna grow up to be a shooter!\u2019\u201d said Ray Mancias, a 19-year-old guitarist who performed after Orden Activa at the show in Atlanta. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s the way they\u2019re seeing (narcocorridos) as well. They think if all these kids keep listening to it, that they\u2019re going to get influenced by it and they\u2019re going to start doing it. But at the end of the day, the way you grow up is your parents. No music is going to change that.\u201d <\/p>\n

Noel Flores \u2013 one of Orden Activa\u2019s two singers \u2013 suggests authorities that try to ban narcocorridos risk shooting themselves in the foot. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just gonna make people want it more,\u201d Flores said. <\/p>\n

Canceling corridos<\/h2>\n

While some Mexican states have tried to ban the songs, and the US State Department their singers, Mexico\u2019s President Sheinbaum has taken a softer approach \u2013 ruling out a nationwide ban and proposing instead that the government promote music about peace and love as an alternative \u2013 a position that has led to some ridicule. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s trying the rather comical alternative of trying to sponsor nice music that people will listen to instead, which is charming,\u201d Wald said. \u201cBut no, that\u2019s not going to work.\u201d <\/p>\n

Of course, if authorities can\u2019t find a way through the debate, it\u2019s not only the bands that will lose, but fans in both Mexico and the US. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith everything going on with (Trump), as a Mexican, cancelling corridos makes us feel more \u2018less,\u2019\u201d said Emmanuel Gonzalez, who attended the concert in Atlanta. <\/p>\n

Other fans have been rowdier about the idea of cancelling corridos. <\/p>\n

When the singer Luis R. Conriquez refused to play drug-themed music at an April concert in Texcoco, Mexico, citing a local ban, he told the booing audience, \u201cThere are no corridos tonight. Should we just go home?\u201d <\/p>\n

They answered by trashing the stage. (Conriquez later defended his decision, saying he \u201cmust follow the new rules the government has set regarding corridos.\u201d) <\/p>\n

Oswaldo Zavala, a professor of literature and expert on narcoculture, says many musicians are self-censoring not out of deference to Mexican authorities, but \u201cin response to Donald Trump\u2019s presidency\u2026 the fear that (Trump) may revoke their visas that allow them to perform and produce their music in the US.\u201d <\/p>\n

A few days after their Atlanta concert, Orden Activa posted a video of their performance alongside the caption: \u201cLet\u2019s see if they don\u2019t take away our visa. Don\u2019t believe it\u2019s a joke.\u201d <\/p>\n

Still, amid the fears there are those that take comfort in the irony that driving underground a form of music that has always celebrated outlaws will likely make it only more popular. <\/p>\n

As another member of the audience in Atlanta, Violet Uresti, puts it: \u201cI like the vibe. I like the way it brings people together. If they ban it, we\u2019re still gonna listen to it.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n

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