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The Narcocorridos and the Borders of the USA
The first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of artistic or cultural
movements is some kind of social upheaval or a dramatic change in the way people
within a particular community or political geography think or behave. However, there
are some movements which are not so easily classified and make it hard to understand
where one must draw the lines of political boundaries. The Narcocorridos is one such
example – in spite of originating in Mexico, they have quite a powerful influence on
shaping the culture of borderland USA and Mexico. Rosalino “Chalino” Sanchez is
perhaps the most famous of the Narcocorridos and almost single-handedly created the
contemporary image of what an artist in this genre is meant to look like and behave.
Before considering Sanchez himself, it may be helpful to understand how and
why the Narcocorridos have such a powerful impact on political geography, perhaps
even more so than much more famous groups and movements such as Grunge Rock
Bands or Jazz artists. In both of the latter cases, the most influential artists and groups
all originated from one specific geopolitical zone – the USA. In terms of political
criteria like citizenship, political issues addressed, etc. these groups were quite
homogeneous. However, the Narcocorridos, which in spite of their influence in the
USA, originated in Mexico and hence have a much more Latin American setting and
address vastly different political issues. Moreover, the moment the Narcocorridos
crossed the border in the USA, their fame was built on very different foundations than
typical American artists and these have very powerful political implications, especially
in terms of crafting national borders.
Chalino Sanchez is still perhaps the single most influential Narcocorrido artist.
His reputation as a troublemaker and bad-boy outcast was earned from an early age. At
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the age of fifteen, he shot a Mafioso who had raped his sister and fled Mexico in order
to escape the authorities. He spent his early years in the USA doing odd jobs in
California while constantly trying to maintain himself financially. These years were
almost certainly instrumental in creating some of the most recurrent themes and images
in his work. Sanchez’s mother tongue was Spanish and, despite the fact that Spanish is
the second most spoken language in the USA, this did present some early difficulties
for the young artist to get real fame. In the 1980s, he spent much of his time in small to
mid-sized concerts until he began producing cassettes with Angel Parra.
As the archetypal illegal immigrant, Sanchez fell into many standard
stereotypes but also constantly battled them through his music. He spent much of his
career as a singer in various nightclubs and it was at one of these nightclubs that he
achieved his fame. An incident involving a gunman attacking Sanchez and resulting in
his (the gunman’s) death, the death of another person, five wounded persons and
Sanchez’s own wounding shot to instant fame. This was compounded to a much greater
degree and he became the poster boy for Narcocorridos after his apparent murder.
Unlike most artists who achieved great fame through successful concert tours or
producing several records and distributing them through the mass media, Sanchez’s
fame was built on his own life and the construction of a kind of legend out of it. This
highlights one of the most significant features of Narcocorrido music which
distinguishes it from almost all other forms of narcotic-related art forms – it stems from
the Spanish ballad.
Given its origins and main themes, Narcocorrido music has a very peculiar way
of treating certain themes. A notable feature is that many of these songs are ‘dedicated’
to certain drug lords and drug cartels – which stems directly from the ballad tradition
of dedicating songs to a patron. However, in the case of Sanchez, this is not quite so
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simple. Since he was on the run from both the Mexican authorities and from Mafiosos,
his music feeds on another strain of Narcocorrido ideology – that of constant struggle
and violence. Much like genres like hip-hop and rap, there is the constant undertone of
a kind of loyalty towards a certain way of life which the singer, apparently, would not
leave even if they could. The Narcocorrido music of Sanchez is particularly renowned
for glorifying a particular kind of Latin machismo which is unique to Mexico and even
some parts of the southwestern American states like California.
This is where Sanchez’s influence on political geography becomes most
evident. Because his particular form of machismo is so highly celebrated through the
‘legend’ of his life (or rather, the legend which his life became), this particular ideology
of life has started influencing large parts of the USA. In more recent times, Several of
Sanchez’s songs such as ‘Prenda del Alma’ have become mainstream hits and, although
they do not talk about the more ‘core’ Narcocorrido themes such as drug abuse, it lays
the groundwork for such music and also points in that direction. Essentially, Sanchez
paved the way for Narcocorrido music to enter the USA and thereby blurred
geopolitical lines of where Mexican cultural influence ends and where American
cultural influence begins.
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