In a previous paper, Gender Construction in the Contemporary Narcocorrido
1967-2000, I presented a history of the corrido and narcocorrido as folk musical
forms, cultural expressions, and highly gendered melodrama. The corrido is a
poetic ballad style of song traditional to Mexico; the narcocorrido is a particular
manifestation of the corrido that deals explicitly with the illegal drug trade
between Latin America and the United States. I argue that the emergence of the
narcocorrido can be traced to a seminal work- Contrabando y Traición, by Los
Tigres del Norte (1967)- and continues today as part of the Norteño genre of
music.
This paper updates my original paper from an anthropological perspective. I will analyze different permutations of gender theory in anthropology and how they apply to a history of the Mexican corrido. I will also attempt to broaden my analysis beyond music and explain how the narcocorrido fits into the culture of the US-Mexico border and how to contemplate doing ethnography in the region. It is vital to tie in the history of the narcocorrido (and the drug trade) with other important historical transformations in the border region, particularly the establishment of maquiladoras and sustained Mexican immigration to the US. Over the last thirty years, the economic and political atmosphere of the US-Mexico border has drastically changed, with large-scale urbanization and industrialization, a more openly democratic but also militarized society, and increased social inequality. Unfortunately, these changes have had tragic results, including drug-related killings, deaths from the perilous trek across the border, and the unsolved murders of women in Ciudad Juárez. This paper will place the narcocorrido in this context.