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Elijah Wald

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Narcocorrido: A Journey into the Music of Drugs, Guns, and Guerrillas Hardcover – November 6, 2001

Spanish Edition by Elijah Wald (Author)

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In the first full-length exploration of the contemporary Mexican corrido, award-winning author Elijah Wald blends a travel narrative with his search for the roots of this unusual and controversial genre -- a modern outlaw music that blends the sensibilities of medieval ballads with the edgy grit of gangsta rap. While opening up a rich musical world, this book paints a picture of modern Mexican culture as it is seen by the people in the streets: raw and romantic, old fashioned and revolutionary, violent and poetic.

Wald traveled through much of Mexico and the southwestern United States (mostly hitchhiking, with a guitar on his back) in order to find notorious corridistas. From international superstars sell millions of albums to rural singers documenting current events for their neighbors in the regions dominated by guerrilla war, Wald was able to visit these songwriters in their homes, trek up to mountain villages, explore the heartland of the Mexican drug traffic, and check out the scene in urban centers such as Los Angeles and Mexico City.

The corrido genre is famous for its hard-bitten songs of drug traffickers and gunfights, and also functions as a sort of musical newspaper, singing of government corruption, the lives of immigrants in the United States, and the battles of the Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas. Since the days of the Mexican Revolution, corridos have been the musical voice of the poor and oppressed, but also a sensational actiongenre that has spawned dozens of his movies and has been attacked by conservative politiciana and anti-drug crusaders. Through largely unknown to English speakers, corridos top the Latin charts and dominate radio playlists both in the United States and points south.

Wald illustrates the power of this music and the subculture it has created. He provides in-depth looks at the songwriters who have transformed groups like the awesomely popular Tigres del Norte into enduring superstars, as well as the younger artists who are carrying the corrido into the twentyfirst century. In searching for the poetry and social protest behind the gaudy lyrics of powerful drug lords, Wald shows how popular music can remain the voice and "newspaper" of a people, even in a modern world ripe with globalization, electronic media, and gangsters who ship cocaine in 747s.

Print length

352 pages
Language

Spanish
Publisher

Rayo
Publication date

November 6, 2001
Dimensions

6.12 x 1.13 x 9.12 inches
ISBN-10

0066210240
ISBN-13

978-0066210247
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Guitar in hand, journalist and musician Wald (Josh White: Society Blues) takes a yearlong journey through Mexico and the southwestern U.S. tracking down composers and performers of the narcocorrido, a modern spinoff of the 19th-century Mexican folk ballad (corrido) that combines the traditional accompaniment of accordion and 12-string guitar (bajo sexto) with markedly current lyrics. Gone are the old "song stories" celebrating heroic generals and lost battles of the Mexican revolution. Narcocorridos romanticize the drug trade the botched smugglings, fallen kingpins and dishonorable police. Wald interviews dozens of key players, from Angel Gonzalez, whose 1972 "Contrabando y Traiciin" ("Smuggling and Betrayal") is credited with launching the narco-trend, to the Rivera family, whose popular Los Angeles record label releases "songs that are notable for their lack of social consciousness, their willingness to push the limits of acceptability and baldly cash in on the most violent and nasty aspects of the drug trade." The style has become hugely popular in L.A. and northwestern Mexico and has spawned a narcoculture marked by cowboy hats, sports suits and gold chains. Unfortunately, Wald's narrow, first-person account reads like a travel journal, blithely moving from subject to subject, ignoring historical context. He glosses over the U.S. and Mexican governments' antidrug military campaigns, which disrupted the lives of many innocent civilians. Wald may think the history of U.S.-Mexican drug trafficking has been sufficiently recounted elsewhere, but explaining the narcocorrido without this background is like writing a history of the American protest song without discussing Vietnam. B&w photos not seen by PW.

From Library Journal

Wald (Josh White: Society Blues) hitchhiked across Mexico in search of the modern corrido, a popular musical genre that reports the heroics of its subjects against the backdrop of norte?o-like harmonies in guitar and accordion. His book focuses especially on the narcocorrido, a genre of ballad that glorifies gun-toting drug lords in a Mexican version of gangsta rap with accordions. In this personalized account, the author interviews corrido songwriters Angel Gonz lez and Paulino Vargas, who scored hits with Los Tigres del Norte, the most popular group of the genre. He takes his readers to Culiacan, the heart of the Mexican drug business, where archetypal corridista Chalino S nchez immortalized drug traffickers and their exploits before his own assassination. Wald moves next to Los Angeles, where the Chalino-influenced Riveras reign as the first family of the narcocorrido. In the last part of the book, he locates the more politically minded corridistas Enrique Franco and Jesse Armenta, travels to the Rio Bravo and the Texas border for Old West-style corridos, and takes a bus to Mexico City and the mountains of southern Mexico, where little-known corridistas sing paeans to Zapatista guerrillas. Wald ends with a visit to Michoacan, the southern Mexican drug capital, where he meets corrido legend Teodoro Bello. Half enthusiast and half ethnomusicologist, Wald offers an engaging, fascinating, and well-written account of a much-neglected musical style that will be irresistible to readers of all types. Dave Szatmary, Univ. of Washington, Seattle
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Narcocorrido is a Mexican fusion of gangsta rap and hard country, a "medieval ballad style whose Robin Hoods . . . fly shipments of cocaine." Its leading purveyors, such as Los Tigres del Norte, are wildly popular with Mexicans and Mexican Americans but almost unknown to mainstream U.S. audiences. Meanwhile, "educated Mexicans [are] horrified by the narcocorridos." Wald traces narcocorrido's development from the Mexican Revolution and Prohibition, when heroic odes (corridos) to revolutionary leaders and tequila smugglers (tequileros) were written. The narcocorridos update that practice to deal with contemporary drug-dealing antiheroes. Wald limns Angel Gonzalez, who "spawned Mexico's most violent and reviled narcocorrido" with his "Contrabando y Traicion" ("Smuggling and Betrayal"); Paulino Vargas, "the most important corrido composer of the modern era"; and others, including larger-than-life legends and tragic heroes aplenty, such as Chalino Sanchez, whose rise to legendary status via demise in a retaliatory gang shooting is "a Mexican version of the Tupac Shakur story." A worthy shelf mate for Michael Eric Dyson's brainy Shakur study, Holler If You Hear Me [BKL Ag 01]. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

“Wald is an engaging writer, and Narcocorrido a must-have for those wanting an introduction to the genre.” — Austin Chronicle

“a unique book about a unique subject...a fascinating reading.” — Dave Ferman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

About the Author

Elijah Waldis a writer and musician whose books include Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues and How the Beatles Destroyed Rock ’n’ Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music. A respected expert on the folk revival, he collaborated with Dave Van Ronk on The Mayor of MacDougal Street, the inspiration for the Coen Brothers’ film Inside Llewyn Davis. His awards include a 2002 Grammy, and he has taught blues history at UCLA and lectured widely on American, Mexican, and world music. He currently lives in Medford, Massachusetts.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Rayo; First Edition (November 6, 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ Spanish
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0066210240
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0066210247
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.44 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.12 x 1.13 x 9.12 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #385,813 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #99 in Spanish Poetry (Books)
- #115 in Caribbean & Latin American Poetry (Books)
- #352 in Human Geography (Books)

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For information about Elijah Wald, his books, his recordings, his other writings, and so forth and so on, visit http://www.elijahwald.com

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Soapsuds

Trafficker Ballads

Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2009

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Even though Amazon has it in its headline as the "(Spanish Version)," the book is in English. Nonetheless, explore the book by clicking "Look Inside" and make double sure it is in English.

Author Elijah Wald takes the reader to the deepest parts of Mexico and South America in "A journey into the music of drugs, guns, and guerrillas. In gathering research for his book titled "Narcocorrido," (Drug traffickers' ballads) the author places his life on the line. He could have been mistaken for a DEA agent and killed.

However, Elijah Wald "is a writer and musician with twenty years' experience covering roots and world music. He was writer and consultant on the Smithsonian multimedia project 'The Mississippi: River of song' and is the author of the award-winning biography 'Josh White: Society Blues.'"

In his book, "Narcocorrido" the author takes the reader with him in an unforgettable journey to the interviews he made of composers and singers of famous, sometimes political and dangerous narco corridors and their composers and singers. He interviews such composers as Angel Gonzalez, "The Father Camelia," Paulino Vargas, "El Maestro," Teodoro Bello, Mario Quintero, Francisco Quintero, The Rivera Family, Enrique Franco, Jesse Amenta, Juan Garza and many others.

The author goes in search of the roots, history, and the reasons some narco corridor singers are savagely murdered. He takes the reader in a dangerous tour to many towns and cities in Mexico and South America. He gambles his life and takes the reader from Tijuana, Baja California to as far as Chiapas, South America.

Thus, author, Elijah Wald,"...shows how popular music can remain the voice of a people, even in this modern world of globalization, electronic media, and gangsters who ship cocaine in 747s."

The experience the reader gets from reading "Narcocorrido," is one that he or she will never forget.

2 people found this helpful

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Steven K. Gill

Amazing Book

Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2013

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Well, all I can say is the author has an exhaustive knowledge of both music and the latter day drug trafficking problems in Mexico. It's a hard book to read if you love the Mexican people as I do - much respect for the salt of the earth that most Mexicans are....heck, I even respect "El Chapo" and the corrupt but nonviolent government officials that receive "plobo o plata" threats from the cartels. They're all doing what they were taught to do....it's the kids caught up in the gangs with little education and no jobs I feel sorry for. As in the song "Smugglers Blues" by Glenn frey, "It's the lure of easy money, one you can't refuse...".
How can we help these people and ourselves out of this nightmare? IMHO we must end the "war on drugs" and let the doctors dispense medication to the addicts - no profit = no gangs = no killing each other by the dozens = less blood feuding and resentment = a whole people living more secure, safer lives = a world where we can share our lives internationally without fearing terrorism.
Equitable distribution of resources will help as will better education and opportunity. Welcoming workers to cross the borders, traveling to foreign countries so we lose our prejudices.....It won't be that hard hope.
This book also gave me an appreciation for the narcocorridos and the country music of Mexico....Thank you for writing this book - recommended highly.

2 people found this helpful

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Michael Erhardt

Wald is the best ~

Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2010

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Elijah Wald is the best living writer on popular, folk, blues, roots, rock, and as it turns out, corrido. He will spoil you for all the goozie fan rags and half-informed I-Was-There books. Narcocorrido isn't his greatest work, but it's still far above almost anything else on the market. Long may you run, Eli.

Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2005

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I grew up in the 50's in Los Angeles, California and I heard norteño, Tex-Mex, corridos as part of the background (musical wallpaper for me)of being Mexican-American. I say musical wallpaper because it smacked of country, of the recently immigrated. I prefered instead R&B. Later, I preferred anything (ragas, jazz, American folk, soul, tropical) other than the music that Elijah Wald writes about. After visiting Mexico several times as an adult and hearing rancheras and pop and cumbia, the feeling for the music of Mexico began to grow. After reading Mr. Wald's book I realized that I had ignored a genre of music that had, in fact, been a part of my life from the beginning. Read this book and then buy the music. If you are learning Spanish as a second language, you can generally find the lyrics on-line. There is no better way (short of taking a Mexican lover) to learn and love this beautiful language. The book is well-written, well-reasearched, and will open your musical mind.

9 people found this helpful

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Wayne

Look inside

Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2021

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A look inside a world few know about. A great start to a deep dive we all so do on the world of Cartels and well the crazy of that.

Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2011

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I got interested in this book after looking at some NarcoCorrido album covers my friend owns and wondered what was the obsession with AR-15's and wearing bullet belts crossed around the chest. It's a decent book written from a "Gringo's" perspective. While it's a good read and very informative, I found that alot of the interviews he did with musicians, many were very tight-lipped and offered very vague answers or simply gave the author the run-around, and this occurrs over and over again throughout the book. I understand that these musicians probably fear for their lives and don't want to anger the hand that feeds them, or maybe they simply don't trust a foreigner prying into their lives, but it doesn't lend to good story-telling when every interview is a series of ambiguious dialogue.

4 people found this helpful

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Jason A. Burchaski

Great read

Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2012

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While traveling Tucson I fell in love with the Narco Ballads. You really don't find this type of music where I am in the Midwest. I was interested in the story behind the music and this book really takes you on a journey into the world of the Narcocorrido. It is an amusing and intelligent read.

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prox5

Ein interessanter Einblick in die mexikanische Country Musik

Reviewed in Germany on July 18, 2013

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Ein sachlicher, informativer Überblick über die mexikanische Country Musik mit Schwerpunkt Balladen (Corridos) aus dem Raum Sinaloa.Der Autor - selbst Musiker - hat die Gegend bereist und zahlreiche Interviews auch mit lokalen Songwritern gemacht. Neben den musikbezogenen Informationen erhält der Leser einen lebendigen Einblick in das teilweise gefahrenvolle Leben der Landbevölkerung.

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