Songs about Mexican drug cartels proving dangerous for performers

By Anna Cearley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

January 2, 2007

TIJUANA – Three months after gunmen seriously wounded Alberto Cervantes Nieto, the popular Tijuana norteño singer was back on the stage at Las Pulgas nightclub, singing his trademark songs about the Arellano Félix drug cartel.

Cervantes' group, Explosion Norteña, is known for its peppy narcocorridos. The genre, in which bands tell musical tales of the drug world and how cartel members stand up to authority, has been compared to gangsta rap in the United States for the way it depicts criminal lifestyles and for the controversy it engenders.

Pressure from community groups has effectively banned narcocorridos from Mexican radio stations, but the groups remain popular. The songs, disseminated on CDs, are memorized by fans who flock to the groups' concerts.

Members of other banda and norteño musical groups have been attacked recently in Mexico, and most of the cases remain unsolved. At least five assaults were reported in 2006, including the killing in November of singer Valetín Elizalde in Reynosa, south of McAllen, Texas. The slaying has been linked to organized crime.

The incidents have revived public discussion over the responsibility that artists bear and the danger they face when depicting such sensitive subjects.