President Claudia Sheinbaum has announced a national contest that seeks to change the tune of one of Mexico’s traditional music genres, which has increased in popularity in recent years: the corrido.
The corrido — a popular song type with a narrative accompanied by distinct instruments — exploded in popularity during the Mexican Revolution at the beginning of the 20th century. Its lyrics detailed the exploits of outlaws, battles lost and won, the lives of revolutionaries, and love and heartbreak.
Nowadays, corridos’ lyrics often address themes of violence, misogyny, and crime and have evolved into a subgenre dubbed “narcocorridos” or “drug ballads.” These focus on the lives of criminals in the drug trafficking trade in Mexico, or “narcos.”
The corrido genre has come under much criticism from some quarters in Mexico, who say it glorifies crime and criminals. But the songs and the artists known for them are popular in Mexico and increasingly in other Latin American countries.
Sheinbaum’s planned contest seeks to draw groups that sing corridos to explore broader themes and move away from glorifying crime, violence and misogyny. She wants corridos to promote values and culture, instead of violence or crime-related ways of life, she says.
“[Corridos] are not only an apology for violence against women but for violence in general,” Sheinbaum said Monday during her daily morning press conference. “They exalt ways of life linked to crime and cartels as if it were a life option – when they’re really a death option.”
She added that her government doesn’t plan to ban corridos with references to violence and crime. Instead, she seeks to encourage other types of lyrics.
“Banning is not an option. It’s not about that [forbidding],” she said. “It is about promoting another vision.”
One of Mexico’s most famous exponents of corridos today is Peso Pluma, who won the Billboard Latin Music Awards’ Artist of the Year in May. Lyrics to his songs have references to drugs, sex and violence. In “Siempre Pendientes,” he goes so far as to praise El Chapo, founder of the Sinaloa cartel.
Sheinbaum said that the contest’s proposal came up during a visit to the northern state of Durango, where she met with Esteban Villegas, the state governor, who is also a banda singer. Banda is another genre of Mexican regional music, representative of Sinaloa and other northern states.
While she didn’t give any further details about the contest, she said they expect to launch it next year.
A corrido by the Mexican artist, El Komander.
