Musician Elijah Wald, author of Narcocorrido: A Journey into the Music of Drugs, Guns, and Guerrillas recounts an interview with a hashish smuggler living in southern Texas, who spoke of an older corrido featuring his grandfather (2001, 2-3). The theme of the song was comprised of smuggling, but not the type of smuggling most would first assume. This song commonly referred as “Los Tequileros” was one of the first corridos turning away from the romantic notes and singing of the social strife occurring in Mexico. Produced sometime between the 1920s and 1930s, Los Tequileros, expressed a tale of three tequila smugglers who were ambushed and killed by the Texas Rangers as they attempted to illegal import their product across the border. However, …show more content…
Researcher Elijah Wald states that even the producers of these folk songs thought the genre was destined to fail and fade away (Wald 2001, 3). However, in the early 1970’s, the genre was revitalized from a band which soared to unexpected popularity. Los Tigres Del Norte’s hit Contrabando y Traicion (Contraband and Betrayal) a ballad regarding transnational drug smuggling. Los Tigres Del Norte presented other fresh themes to the genre, with songs concerning migrants and border crossings (Herlinghaus 2006, 2). Moreover, a second hit, “La Banda del Carro Rojo” (The Red Car Gang) emerged and fashioned a movie after the song’s lyrical story. Similarly, Contrabando y Traicion was additionally selected and produced into a film. The popularity of both musical titles and the subsequent films furthermore spawned movie sequels (Wald 2001, 3). These songs strongly resonated with Mexicans residing in proximity to the northern borderline. Moreover, the appeal of these new titles is partly due to common experiences shared by the public in the community, who began to hear their stories turned to song and portrayed in movies (Herlinghaus 2006, 2). The genre yet again connected those Mexicans living along Mexico’s northern border and assisted in providing a type of