Katarina Szulc

In their music videos, they have the Rolex presidential whole Gucci outfit and they're singing about, you know, they're strapped up with the scar and they drive the cars around that are fully armored.

They get their money, they're selling the merchandise.

And they make this life seem so enticing.

You have so much money, you have all these hot girls, you have all of everything that's trendy, and you have a great beat to accompany it.

Because I must say, sometimes I listen to these songs too and I'm like, this is great.

This is a great song.

But the narrative it's pushing is absolutely horrible.

And so the Mexican government has tried to crack down on this.

I mean, corridos have been banned in Sinaloa for a while.

And a lot of other states have banned this music genre in public places, at establishments, at concerts.

Actually, a lot of Mexican musicians are now being sanctioned and having their visas revoked by the U.S.,

for their lyrics, what they're singing, because it so explicitly promotes cartel propaganda.

And the Mexican government plays their role, and the federal government actually just put out this initiative, Mexico Canta, Mexico Sings, to encourage people to participate in this movement

basically a competition where you can play music, you have a band or sing a song, original singer, songwriter, whatever it is, but that has nothing to do with cartels or narco propaganda.

And the interesting thing is,

When the Mexican government talks about this genre of music, they particularly focus on violence against women, violent acts, and drug trafficking.

What they're missing, that is the key point, is, hey, young people, this is propaganda.

This life is actually not as cool as these songs are making them seem to be.

This is how you die.

This is how you end up like Valeria.