Narcocorridos

A few days ago I listened while Mario Lopez, the governor of Sinaloa, spoke out about the dangers of the narco corrider to young people. he went on about how their minds—those of mexico’s youth—are like sponges. His argument isn’t a new one: the music encourages impressionable minds to seek hapineess in money and power. In fact, just today I heard part of a song saying something to the effect that boldness leads to power, power to money, and money to hapiness. The singer closed his argument by saying, “that’s the way of the world.” (In Spanish, of course) I understand and perhaps even sympathize with his plight of being a governor of a state infested with crime. His back is to the wall, people look to him for answers, and unfortunately—like most elected officials—he needs to point the blame at someone or something. Music being a faceless victim—so long as he keeps his statements general—he attacks verbal expression as the inciting factor. And his argument isn’t new.

About twenty years ago American politicians were spouting the same rhetoric from the pulpits of their communities. Rap music, was at that time, the culprit for rising crime, recidivis, teen pregnancy, and I think—if I’m not mistaken—drug and alcohol abuse. At that time I probably nodded my head in agreement; afterall, I was an aspiring capitalist, square. But now, to hear such an argument, I outright laugh.

The offensive music that Mr. Mario Lopez refers to as the cause of the problem is actually one of many results of the problem. For years I’ve researched organized crime in North America, and there is one truth that can’t be denied: Crime isn’t the problem, it’s the result. An organized band of criminals, regardless of their colors does not come to be of it’s own accord, no more than cancer. There is a cause, possibly unique in each case, for why a criminal organization has come into existence. And without going into the background of every criminal organization I’ve studied, I’ll just say that we—you, me, everyone—are the reasons organized crime exists. Because with one face we tell ourselves that we’re “free,” and with another we condemn the very freedoms that supposedly define us. 

We can’t have it both ways.