robotnik2004 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
robotnik2004) wrote2003-10-01 11:19 pm
robotnik2004) wrote2003-10-01 11:19 pm
ARFFF! #2: Ay-ay-ay-ayeeee!
Narcocorrido, by Elijah Wald
Here's how smart I am. I thought narcocorrido was Spanish for "drug smuggler," and that this book was about the world of drug trafficking on the U.S.-Mexican border. I picked it up at the library on a whim. (For Fun!) But as anyone with the slightest knowledge of Mexican culture or even grade school Spanish probably could have told me, a corrido is a song, and narcocorridos are songs about the drug trade, a monstrously popular genre of romantic ballads about drug kingpins, crooked cops, and botched smuggling runs. Which is actually a lot cooler. I told you I was smart.
The book was just so so. It's a loving celebration of the music and the people who make it, which is fine, but it seems like it could have gotten into the whole grit and grime of the drug trade a bit more. Still, I love discovering a whole pop cultural niche I knew nothing about. Like when you first discover wuxia. Or German mountain climbing movies. Or Thai unicycle porn. One of the funny things about narcocorridos is that, even though the people featured in the songs (often the people who finance the recordings) are clearly some bad fucking hombres, you get the distinct impression that the songs themselves are kind of hokey. A lot of accordions and brass horns and ay-ay-ayeees. It's like if there was a whole genre of polka songs about Russian mafia assassins. Maybe there is.
Here's how smart I am. I thought narcocorrido was Spanish for "drug smuggler," and that this book was about the world of drug trafficking on the U.S.-Mexican border. I picked it up at the library on a whim. (For Fun!) But as anyone with the slightest knowledge of Mexican culture or even grade school Spanish probably could have told me, a corrido is a song, and narcocorridos are songs about the drug trade, a monstrously popular genre of romantic ballads about drug kingpins, crooked cops, and botched smuggling runs. Which is actually a lot cooler. I told you I was smart.
The book was just so so. It's a loving celebration of the music and the people who make it, which is fine, but it seems like it could have gotten into the whole grit and grime of the drug trade a bit more. Still, I love discovering a whole pop cultural niche I knew nothing about. Like when you first discover wuxia. Or German mountain climbing movies. Or Thai unicycle porn. One of the funny things about narcocorridos is that, even though the people featured in the songs (often the people who finance the recordings) are clearly some bad fucking hombres, you get the distinct impression that the songs themselves are kind of hokey. A lot of accordions and brass horns and ay-ay-ayeees. It's like if there was a whole genre of polka songs about Russian mafia assassins. Maybe there is.
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