Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Narco-Corrido Singers

Alejandro Villa, La Sangre Nueva del Corrido, Shot Dead in Tlaquepaque, Jalisco

Chalino Sanchez was the first, a narco-corrido writer who couldn't carry a tune, but had the authentic grit and sound of a young man born on a rancho in Culiacán, working for the cartel.  Los Tigres del Norte would have had a very different career path had Chalino not showed them the possibilities of portraying ordinary men caught in the bitter-sweet life-style of drug trafficking in Mexico.  Popular mainly in Southern California, Chalino's fame and record sales skyrocketed after he was murdered in Culiacan, Sinaloa in 1992.

Alejandro Villa, 25, a narco-corrido singer known as the "new blood" of the corrido, born in Badiraguato, Sinaloa, birthplace of Chapo Guzman, was shot and killed Tuesday night in Tlaquepaque.  Unlike Chalino, he came from a world of singers, his grandfather Federico Villa having popularized one of the most famous ranchera songs in Mexico, Caminos de Michoacán.  There is a picture that circulated today, of his grandfather standing proudly with Caro Quintero, the drug capo who ordered DEA agent Kiki Camarena killed in Mexico, served 27 years in the pen and is now back in business, on the lam.  Alejandro captured what it might be like to be a young buck in the cartel business, and many of his promotion photos show him packing iron.  Two examples of his work:

From:  La Despedida de Manuel (Nuevos Corridos 2019):(click here to listen on YouTube) 

le soltaron un pedazo y empezo a vender
gramos de caspa del diablo rapido fue a aprender 
Allí cambiaron las cosas esta vida es curiosa
Siempre fiel a San Juditas
La Humildad siempre cerquita
y se hizo miembro del cartel 
En Tlaquepaque logro ese sueño

 (my translation):

They offered him a brick and he started to sell
grams of coke (the devil's dandruff) and he learned fast
Then, how things changed, how strange life is
Always faithful to St. Jude
Always humble he joined the cartel 
In Tlaquepaque his dream came true.

From Soy Nueva Generacion (2017) (click here for YouTube

Quiero que les quede claro
que el cartel jalisco, aquí sigue rifando
soy de acción, nueva generación
con astucia y con talento transitando
el territorio, en san juan patrullando