*The late Valentin Elizalde (1979-2006):
http://www.aolnews.com/weird-news/article/narcocorridos-the-songs-of-mexicos-drug-war/19579177
"(Aug. 10) – It's like gangsta rap with accordions.
"As Mexico grapples with a lengthy and increasingly bloody drug war, tunes glorifying drug runners, gang enforcers and narcotics cartels have emerged as the songs of an era.
"Narcocorridos" are in many ways a continuation of Mexico's long "corrido" tradition of lyrical storytelling. But instead of singing the praises of folk heroes like Pancho Villa or a woman who saved her village from a flood, these ballads are musical tributes to the generals and foot soldiers in a drug war that, according to the U.S. State Department, has claimed some 23,000 lives since December 2006.
"... groups like Los Tigres del Norte began documenting the drug trade with tunes like "Contrabando y Traicion" ("Contraband and Betrayal"), a song detailing a Bonnie and Clyde-style couple who smuggle drugs across the border, only for the girlfriend to gun down her man and escape with the money.
"A decade later, Mexican immigrant and Los Angeles resident "Chalino" Sanchez brought a gruff voice and a tough persona to the world of narcocorridos. While earlier singers of narcocorridos became popular as documentarians of the drug trade, Sanchez became a star by acting as if he was a part of it himself.
"Chalino Sanchez was a little more like Tupac [Shakur] in a sense," said Mark Edberg, author of "El Narcotraficante: Narcocorridos and the Construction of a Cultural Persona on the U.S.-Mexico Border."
"He was a little bit more in that world, unlike some of the other singers. In fact, he pulled out a gun and fired at the crowd at one of his shows," Edberg said.
Sanchez was shot and killed in 1992 after a concert in the Mexican state of Sinaloa...
(((This just in: Mexican "narquitectura." The tomb of Elizalde:)))
http://mananarama.blogspot.com/2009/06/culiacan.html
