Luis R. Conriquez took the stage at a popular fair in Texcoco, Mexico, as one of the headlining acts.
Once called the “Corridos King” by Billboard magazine, the Mexican musician is renowned for his specialty of so-called narcocorridos, a version of the traditional Mexican ballads that celebrate drug cartels.
But hours before performing earlier this month, Mr. Conriquez announced on social media that he wasn’t going to perform several of his signature songs. Instead, he was joining a movement sweeping across Mexico to phase out this prominent genre of music, which its critics argue promotes the violence and criminal activity that have ravaged the country.
The crowd booed Mr. Conriquez and trashed the instruments after he and his band left the stage.
“It feels bad not being able to sing what people want to hear,” Mr. Conriquez said on social media, “but we join the cause of zero corridos.”
It was a pivotal moment for Mexico, which is wrestling with both the effects of organized crime across the country, particularly amid pressure from the Trump administration to crack down on cartels, and its identity as defined through popular culture.
In particular, the fierce debate over narcocorridos — which opponents say glorify cartels and thus the harm they have inflicted on Mexicans — has become a referendum on free speech in Mexico.
Over the past month, more and more municipalities and states have virtually banned the genre, making it a crime to play music that celebrates the drug trade and other crimes. In Mexico state, where Mr. Conriquez was to perform, authorities had warned that performing songs that provoked or glorified criminal activities could result in fines and jail time.
“We believe that society has to start rejecting content that advocates for violence, drugs or misogyny,” Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said after Mr. Conriquez’s concert.
Corridos have been around since the middle of the 19th century, according to José Manuel Valenzuela Arce, a sociology professor and author of three books on the genre. The songs became important to storytelling, recounting tales of war heroes like “Pancho” Villa and key moments in history.
But as drug cartels began taking a firmer grip on Mexico in the 1970s, the ballads began to reflect this as well, Mr. Valenzuela Arce said. In recent decades, he said, as past administrations waged bloody wars against cartels, the lyrics became more explicit and more directly about famous narco leaders, like Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
More narcocorrido styles also surfaced, such as corridos tumbados, which combine singing, rapping and traditional Mexican music. “The tumbado movement emerged, riding on social media, and the artists no longer needed a production industry,” Mr. Valenzuela Arce said.
Artists like Natanael Cano (who drew a record 310,00 people to a concert in Mexico last year), Peso Pluma (who received 8.5 billion views on YouTube in 2023) and others have since become mainstream international stars.
Still, in recent months, the industry has felt a strengthening backlash against narcocorridos.
Experts believe this latest crackdown is the strongest yet because Ms. Sheinbaum has publicly positioned herself against the genre. Earlier this month, she announced a government-run national talent contest, offering record deals as top prizes for corridos free of drug-related and violent lyrics.
“What we want is to promote music with other content,” said Ms. Sheinbaum, who has also rejected flat-out narcocorrido bans.
Another factor, experts said, is the United States government. Mr. Valenzuela Arce said the Trump administration has not only labeled cartels terrorist groups, and thus made any association with them a more serious crime, but it has essentially pressured Mexican officials to act while also scaring musicians. The Times reached out to the representatives of at least nine major artists and none commented.
Last month, the band Los Alegres del Barranco had their U.S. visas pulled when the face of a top cartel leader was displayed onstage while the group performed in Guadalajara, Mexico. In a state recently traumatized by cartel violence, the group apologized and legislators moved to penalize all public expressions that incite crimes, including at nightclubs.
“I’m a firm believer in freedom of expression, but that doesn’t mean that expression should be free of consequences,” Christopher Landau, the U.S. deputy secretary of state, said on X on April 1. He added later, “The last thing we need is a welcome mat for people who extol criminals and terrorists.”
Arturo Ávila, a Mexican congressman pushing for stricter federal laws on incitement to encompass music, TV, movies and video games “glorifying” crime or “promoting violence against women,” hailed the U.S. government’s visa revocations as “the strongest action” and “the most effective” against artists.
“It’s a time for us all to reflect on what kind of Mexico we want,” he said.
Since February, at least seven cities or states have either effectively banned or introduced regulations for narcocorridos. In Chihuahua, one of the first cities in Mexico to regulate violent lyrics in 2015, Mayor Marco Bonilla said in an interview that the laws have worked. The local government collected $270,000 in fines last year.
“As long as we don’t eradicate narco-culture in Mexico, we won’t be able to eradicate the violence and crime in our country,” Mr. Bonilla said.
After his concert earlier this month, Mr. Conriquez said that he will tweak his lyrics to be less explicit and adapt his set list based on local bans. He begins a U.S. tour later this week.
The artist declined requests for comment.
Other musicians have followed suit: Grupo Firme, a well-known group, announced last week before a concert in Aguascalientes state, where the government banned songs inciting violence the day before, that it would not play its narcocorridos anymore.
Jesús Eulogio Sosa, who founded the Mexican regional music band Los Buitres de Culiacán Sinaloa, which has several well-known narcocorridos, said in an interview that he knew of other musicians who have had their U.S. visas denied since Los Alegres del Barranco had theirs pulled.
Mr. Sosa said he has watched “with sadness” as this movement against the genre has unfolded across Mexico “because it affects us all.” Corridos, he said, have long been an important part of Mexican culture because they have told stories about key figures without always glorifying the crimes.
“Prohibition isn’t the answer,” Mr. Sosa said, adding that he favored some regulation, perhaps on the internet to shield younger audiences from certain lyrics. “The solution is education. You wanting to become a drug dealer for listening to a corrido is like saying that if you go see the ‘Avengers,’ you’re going to want to leave the movies as a superhero.”
His band faced censorship in Tijuana as far back as 15 years ago and slowly began singing more romantic songs, he said, rather than narco-themed ones. He admitted that now, though, as a father, he wouldn’t have recorded the band’s biggest hit, a 2010 narcocorrido dedicated to a now-deceased Sinaloa Cartel leader.
On a recent afternoon, Abel de Jesús Rosales Reza, 22, played older narcocorridos over a speaker as he worked at this family’s clothing shop in Mexico City. He grew up listening to the style of music through his family.
He said the government, not just the cartels, is to blame for Mexico’s corruption and problems. The power of music only went so far.
“It’s up to each person,” he said. “You can listen to corridos and not be a bad person.”
Emiliano Rodríguez Mega contributed reporting.
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