Summary: The Musical Power Of Narcocorridos

Joaquin Guzman best known as “El Chapo” is the world's greatest drug lord. He has been captured three times and has been able to escape twice, once in a laundry basket and the second time he managed to escaped in an underground tunnel built in his shower cell. He was recently recaptured after being fugitive for about six months. Joaquin entered the drug business as a teenager and later became in charge of the Sinaloa cartel. “He shops and ships by some estimates more than half of all the cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana that come into the United States”(Penn). Many argue that El Chapo is a really bad person that only does a lot of harm to the citizens in Mexico, but what most don't know is that he actually helps some of them.

Thesis Statement: How Joaquín Guzmán Loera became a mythical figure in Mexico, both a narco folk hero and a villain

Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera (El Chapo) was born on December 25, 1954 in the community of Badiraguato, Sinaloa, Mexico. His parents were Emilio Guzman Bustilos and Maria Consuelo Loera Perez. He grew up on his father’s cattle ranch with his two younger sisters, Amida and Bernarda, and four younger brothers, Miguel Angel, Aureliano, Arturo and Emilio. It is also known that his father was an opium farmer. Throughout Guzman’s childhood he was often beaten by his father for standing up to him. Usually protecting his younger siblings therefore he ended up taking his father’s wrath. Guzman dropped out of the third grade to work for his father, this was due to the fact that the nearest school was 60 miles away and the family could not afford to commute. With little education and few opportunities for employment in his hometown, he became to help cultivate opium for his father. His brothers also joined the family business when they came of age. They would harvest the plant by the kilos and his father would sell it to other suppliers. Guzman became tired of his father’s mismanagement, so he started growing and cultivating his own marijuana plantation with a few distant cousins. He then became financially able to support his family, while his father could not. This ended up leading to his father kicking him out due to jealousy. He then went to live with his grandfather, this is where he earned his nickname El Chapo, which means shorty. This due to the fact that he was 5’6” and

Even though Narco corrido is a present trend, the ancestry of this Mexican music mode can be traced more or less a century back. These extractions were forged by the tunes of customary Corrido music, a method that puffed up the 1910 Revolution as well as the battles of admired conquerors such as Pancho Villa along with Emiliano Zapata. The earlier artists were quite reserved; they never injected the hard hitting lyrics (Villalobos et al 27). Their compositions could be classified as moderate narco corridos. The past performer employed the music as a form of a local bulletin where they poured and talked of the local issues. However, the change came Back then after a Norteno group recognized plainly as Los Tigres del Norte sired the up the initiative to record a solo with reference to the days of a female smuggler who dared to bring marijuana into the US and later killed her collaborator in crime ahead of escaping with the funds of their business deal. That solo was called "Contrabando Y Traicion" and turn out to be a

After the Mexican Revolution of 1910, a nationalistic sentiment spread throughout Mexico as they sought to form a unified identity under its new constitution. Under the new organization of the country, Mexico underwent many political and social changes, many of them violent. At the turn of the 20th century, Mexican nationalism was of the utmost importance. Finally, the masses of Mexican poor began to have a voice in their own destiny and began to seek out a national identity. In order to be fully immersed in an identity that seemed ambiguous due to centuries of colonization, Mexico looked to the arts to help mold Mexico’s new character as a country. Muralists like Rivera, Siqueiros, Orozco and Khalo portrayed the struggle for freedom and democracy against the oligarchs that had exploited the poor for decades. Music also played a pivotal role in expressing nationalistic views and ideas through movements such as the traditional and the “indigenismo”. One of the composers who was at the forefront of the “indigenismo” movement was Carlos Chávez. Chávez strived to distance himself from romantic influences and practices, and searched for new methods to create pieces that were for everyone, not just the elite. Chavez’s investigation of indigenous Indian cultures, native folk elements, and dance forms brought an unprecedented vigor and visibility to 20th century Mexican Music. Chávez traveled to Europe and the United States to gain recognition beyond Mexico’s border, thus catapulting his influence on Mexico’s musical style and cultures.

Narcocorridos are a sub-genre of the Mexican corrido, use the ballads to tell harrowing tales of the criminal exploits of drug smugglers and cartel members. Found predominantly in northern,

In 1993, EL Chapo was captured and sent to another high maximum security prison in Jalisco, Mexico. Initially, he was placed in a isolated facility until he was able to bribe and threaten the staff to place him with the other inmates. While there, they allowed him to have sex with female prisoners from other institutions, smuggle cocaine through Viagra pills, and treated him like a king (Fusion). Also, he stayed in contact with other extremely powerful drug allies, providing him with money and enforced their power among the guards (Grayson 58). After lawmakers did further investigation on his escape, it has been shown that seventy-one prison officials were receiving regular payments from 'El Chapo' (Morris 254). This continued for eight years (a few days before being extradited to the U.S.) until he decided that it was time for him to escape (Grayson 58). His major influence with his guards, led to them helping hide his body under dirty laundry and smuggling him out of the

In the late 1970’s, Guzman worked under the drug lord Hector “El Guero” Palma by transporting narcotics near U.S.-Mexico border through aircraft. Although Guzman’s rank in the cartel was very minimal, he took his job very seriously. For example, if any of his drug shipments were not on schedule, he would kill the smuggler himself usually letting them experience a slow and painful death. Business partners quickly learned that ripping Guzman off or betraying him was not an option. The way Guzman handled business helped him gain popularity. In the 1980’s, the dominant Guadalajara Cartel introduced him to Felix Gallardo, one of Mexico’s high ranked drug lords. Guzman began working for Gallardo as a chauffeur then quickly moved up in the business with the role of coordinating drug shipments from Columbia to Mexico through land, air, and sea. Palma on the other hand delivered his drugs into the United States. Guzman earned himself a lot of respect for his work and began working for Gallardo directly. Throughout the late 70’s and early 80’s, Mexico drug traffickers were the middlemen for Columbian drug trafficking groups. They would simply transport drugs into the U.S. and receive a fee for each kilogram. At this point Gallardo was the top drug kingpin in Mexico. When Gallardo was arrested, Guzman reportedly lived in Guadalajara, Jalisco. He owned several houses throughout

to test their fate, another quickly emerging option was to join the underground drug trafficking market. The changing climate in the drug trafficking world did not go without having any effect on the corridos, of course.

Do narcocorridos glorify and incite the violent and gruesome behaviors they depict? Narcocorridos are a type of popular Mexican music that derives from traditional ballads called corridos. Corridos were popular in the first half of the 20th century because of their relation to the Mexican Revolution. They told stories about famous revolutionaries. Narcocorridos emerged later and became popular in the 1970s. The difference between these two music genres is that narcocorridos do not tell stories about revolutionaries, but address the topic of drugs and the drug culture in Mexico. They tend to focus on drug smugglers and often portray them as heroes. Narcocorridos glorify violent and gruesome behaviors all while inciting violence, influencing the youth, and creating fear amongst the people.

In the article “Welcome to Tijuana”: Popular Music on the US–Mexico Border. Sociology and Social Researcher Elena Dell’Agnese studies popular music on the US-Mexico border. This study shows that classic corrido is the most popular along with other hydbrid types of music. These different types of music show that the US-Mexico border is very mixed. Elena starts off the article stating that since the sixties there have been many different branches of research over popular music focusing on a certain location and tradition. She then goes in to describe the first most popular music type discovered on her study case. Corrido was recorded as the most popular and most ancient of all the music genres in the area of the border. A corrido is a Mexican

To begin the analysis of Joaquin Guzman, we must begin with his childhood. Joaquin was the firstborn in a family with two sisters and three brothers. This according to the article, “Alfred Adler Research on Birth Order” makes him the leader of his siblings, which shows true with him often protecting him against his abusive father, often taking beatings for them. Also, according to the article, he is goal-oriented and high achieving, this also can be seen as true considering he is known as one of the most powerful drug lords of all time and during the late 2000’s was ranked as one of the most powerful and richest people in the world. It is also stated that often the firstborn can become authoritarian and strict, which is seen in the ruthless

The government has made some gains, but at a heavy price. A total of 34,612 people have died in drug-related killings in Mexico in the first four years (Siddique). Most of these killing are between cartel rivals fighting for the control of territories. There are five cartels operating in Mexico: the Sinaloa, the Gulf, Juarez, Tijuana, the Zetas. The major cartels are the Gulf, Sinaloa and Juarez (Cook 21). Many of these cartels have joined together forming powerful alliances known as the “Federation” (Cook 17). The cartels work together, but they remain independent organizations.

Let’s start from the beginning in the story about “El Pablo Escobar”, who became the king of coke. First of all, Pablo Escobar was from Colombia, Antioquia and born in 1949. Before his time as a drug lord and a murderous criminal, who organized one of the biggest drug trades in the world. He was a boy like any other regular child, who would spend his time cutting people grass to make money. Going camping on the weekends with the boy scouts, learning how to live in the wild. But he was raised up in the harsh time of economy, where people protested, and fought with one another. Escobar seen many deaths growing up, people beating each other up, protesting for better future for Colombia, and riots where hundreds of people who would fight. Where it all began to create a person like

El resultado de esta narración es una cinta cautivadora, por la que Guerra logra coordinar los principios de las tradiciones y costumbres de Colombia. Ciertos ejemplos son vistos en esta narración con el uso de los paisajes de Colombia y como en ellos se descifra el uso de la música. Esta clase de usos es demostrada en el encuentro que tienen Ignacio y Fermín al trepar a la sierra nevada de Santa Marta con los indios Koguis, quienes ocupan el lugar de buenos samaritanos. Durante su estancia con los Koguis se observa la conexión que Ignacio tiene con ellos mediante la música. Mientras uno de ellos toca la flauta, Ignacio lo acompaña con su acordeón. A pesar de que entre ellos existe una distancia entre la comunicación, se revela en como la música puede unirlos. En esta estancia se relata cómo la música funciona como un tipo de