Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, Pablo Escobar, Amado Carrillo, Rafael Caro Quintero, are just a few drug lords that have a narcocorrido made after them. Narcocorridos is a type of genre that tell the story of a drug lord. The narcocorridos are popular in Latin America and in the U.S., however, the narcocorridos are very controversial due to the fact that they praise drug lords. In many countries, the government wants to ban the narcocorridos. The government wants to ban then narcocorridos because they believe it’s not a good representation of Mexico. The government also wants to ban narcocorridos because they promote violence among the young. The narcocorridos are not only a music genre, but a part of the Mexican culture.  In my opinion, I think that the government should not ban the narcocorridos because they tell the story of Mexican culture.

It’s not a secret that the Mexican government has been fighting drug cartels for many years. Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera is a perfect example of a famous drug lord the Mexican government has been fighting. El Chapo created his drug empire which transported multi-tons of drugs all over the world. The Mexican government as well as the American government wanted to capture El Chapo because he was considered a dangerous man. America made El Chapo a well-known criminal by putting him in the top 10 most wanted list.

Many songwriters take the killing, the betrayal, the rise of El Chapo, and glorify him in a narcocorridos. It is true that the narcocorridos don’t represent Mexico in a positive way but it’s a sad truth that Mexico has a violence problem. Banning the narcocorridos will not stop the bad reputation it has. The banning of the narcocorridos is the government saying “we don’t have a violence problem,” but the proof is in the music. An example would be a songwriter creating a song that tells the story of a shoot out with the police, something that happens often in the city of Mexico.

The narcocorridos can be considered a form of journalism. The narcocorridos and a journalist have the same concept of reporting the news; the only difference is how they report it. A journalist writes an article and then he or she posts it in a newspaper or online. While a narcocorridos writer reports his news in a song. A great example of this is the song “la Fuga del Chapo” by Ariel Camacho, which tells the story of el Chapo escaping from prison.

The constant reminder should trigger people to do something about it. In many of the narcocorridos, it tells the story of cops being bought so the drug lord can commit their crime. The harsh reality should make the people make a movement to stop the drug lords. In most of the narcocorridos, it has a message that the life of a drug lord is not easy and the only two option is jail or being killed.    

Overall the narcocorridos tell the stories of not only a drug lord but the situation in Mexico. The narcocorrido is a form of journalism that should be praised not because it glorifies the violence of Mexico but because it reminds us of the violence.