100% Chamula!!: Transgressive identities and musical

100% Chamula!!: Transgressive identities and musical transculturalism in
the Mexican south border
by Marusia Pola Mayorga, Texas Tech University
and Anny Zuñiga Santiago, Independent Artist
marusia.pola@ttu.edu
katarinarock666@gmail.com
The American Musicological Society Southwest Chapter
Fall 2015
Texas State University
Introduction
In the last thirty years the permanent migratory flow of travelers passing through Mexico to get
to the North has changed the socio-cultural landscape in the country. The musical identity of
norteño music is an example of these changes. Norteño has become a sort of invasive cultural
phenomenon that is taking over other local traditional musical idioms. Corridos (a subgenre of
norteño) as a musical form can be traced back to the romantic ballad tradition of fourteenthcentury Spain.1
Narco-corridos (corridos that talk specifically of events and people related to the drug
trade) flourished during the 1990s and become widely popular among northern norteño bands.2
The themes found in narco-corridos are characterized by the use of the ’tragic hero’ archetype.3
Alertness corridos (movimiento alterado) are a more recently trend and its main difference with
narco-corridos is the hyper-violent content found on its lyrics and its literal references not only
to drug lords but, murdered and heavy drugs. Therefore it is necessary to rethink and re analyze
corrido and narco-corridos within a different schema, one that steps away from a ‘revolutionary
nationalism’ and dig deeper into a transnationalism emerged from the cultural practices brought
by migrant phenomenon.4
Karteles de San Juan is a norteño music band formed entirely by Tzotzil Indigenous
people from San Juan Chamula, located in the high regions of Chiapas in the southern Mexican
border. Karteles de San Juan embodies in its aesthetic elements and music an urban persona full
of northern and narco representations typical of the northern region of Mexico.
Song and analysis
“100% Chamula” (recorded in 2009) is one of their major hits and has become a sort of
identity manifesto. In this song, the demand for social visibility and the claim for an authentic
national identity is rejecting a traditional discourse and transforming the cultural associations
typical connected with Indigenous artistic manifestations. This paper unpacks the song “100%
1
Francisco Manzo Robledo, Del Romance Español al Narcocorrido Mexicano (México D.F.: Libros para Todos,
2007), 207.
2
Mercedes Zavala Gómez del Campo ed., Formas Narrativas de la Literatura de Tradición Oral de México:
Romance, Corrido, Decima, Leyenda y Cuento. (San Luis Potosí: El Colegio de San Luis, 2009), 114.
3
Miriam Díaz González, Perspectiva Sociocritica del Narcocorrido en México (Morelia, Michoacán: Universidad
Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, 2010), 61.
4
María Luisa de la Garza, Pero Me Gusta lo Bueno: Una Lectura Ética de los Corridos que Hablan del
Narcotráfico y de los Narcotraficantes, (Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas: Universidad de Ciencias y Artes de Chiapas,
2008) 6. 1 Chamula” and its cultural implications. Based in content analysis and data collected from three
fieldwork trips with the band to Chamula, San Cristobal de las Casas and Rancho Nuevo we
explore the socio-cultural context from which the song emerges amid the cultural appropriations
typical of a border state, we include a collection of carefully crafted photographs (made by
independent visual artist Anny Zuñiga Santiago) that are going to act as visual complement to
the argument parallel to the paper. This paper is thus an interdisciplinary collaboration between
musicology and visual arts.
Chiapas is located in the south border of Mexico and shares with Guatemala a border line
of 497 miles. It is one of the Mexican states with highest percentage of Indigenous population
and more social gaps and lower level of economic development for the past years. It is within
this context that the migration phenomenon, product of a long historical process, has grown.
While the current, especially poor economic situation is the main factor responsible for human
movement, a configuration of economic, social and political structures that results in a migration
dynamics has also emerged.
Three cycles can be perceived in the migration flow; first the internal migrations that
include local communities moving inside Chiapas to different geographical areas, second, the
interstate migrations that are a direct consequence of the economic crisis and which affect the
most vulnerable communities, Indigenous and peasants. Third, cycle is that of international
migration. The incorporation of Chiapas as part of the circuit of international migration is
relatively recent, no more than two decades old. The first experiences are recorded in 1989. The
emergence of the international migratory phenomenon in Chiapas coincides with the
convergence of several events resulting from neoliberal policies that were devastating in the
economic and social conditions of the province.5
Permanent migration cycles are engaging migrants in cultural exchange. Norteño music is
an idiom with deep historical roots, but, however, these more recent events have made the genre
invade every corner of the republic, in an immigration backflow from north to south. Norteño
music displaces more traditional and regional music along with dance expressions from public
spaces and media.
Narco-corrido and movimiento alterado (alertness movement) are subgenres of the
norteño imagery emerging as a people response to the increasing violence and narco presence.
Every day the media include news about the drug-wars, and this in turn has rendered that
violence seemingly familiar or unremarkable. At the same time, that reporting has created
associations with narco lives and material values that distort the drug problem and romanticize
the lifestyle. These distortions have yielded a series of aesthetic codes that have become part of
the popular culture universe. These elements, which I refer to as narco-aesthetics, are
particularly noticeable in contexts where their evocation seems incongruous or out of place. But
there is an important point here: the reinterpretation of such aesthetics by communities that use
them as transgressive elements to empower their identity beyond their marginalized reality.
The movimiento alterado (alertness movement) emerges as a consequence of that.
Movimiento alterado can be seen as a subculture that encompasses music, movies and a lifestyle
that is associated with a narco lifestyle, a subcultural identity within which a whole generation
finds a voice among all the violence and destruction brought by the narco-wars.
5
Daniel Villafuerte Solís and García Aguilar, María del Carmen. “Tres ciclos migratorios en Chiapas: interno,
regional e internacional.” Migración y desarrollo, 12 no. 22 (2014): 22, accessed September 18, 2015,
http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1870-75992014000100001&lng=es&tlng=es.
2 Song and analysis
Soy 100% Chamula
Karteles de San Juan is a norteño band based in San Juan Chamula, a municipality
township situated 6 miles from San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico. San Juan
Chamula’s population belongs to Tzotzil ethnic group, who identify as Mayan descendants. The
band is formed entirely by Tzotzil people, all bilingual and self-taught musicians. The ensemble
is fashioned as a classic modern norteño banda and includes a vocalist, two accordionists, bajo
sexto, electric bass and drums. They have been together for almost six years and have recorded
four studio albums. I became interested in working with this band because I was curious about
both their reasons for playing the imported style of norteño, and also by their obvious inclination
towards movimiento alterado.
They all come from different Tzotzil communities from the high lands of Chiapas,
however they all self-identified primarily as Chamulas which confirms their own agenda which
seeks a unified ethnic identity. They all are self-taught musicians, having started their musical
training with norteño and none of them have a traditional music background or interest. It is
precisely this conscious departure from, even an avoidance of, their vernacular traditions that led
me to re-theorize the different ways they are framing their cultural identity.
I choose “100%Chamula” as the focus of my discussion because of the cultural
implications of the lyrics and title and because it seems to be their major hit; the song has 5600
to 27000 hits on YouTube and according to the band itself, it is the song that people request
more often in live performances. The song was made by order of the owner/producer of the
group, Domingo Santiz aka ‘Tacho’.
“While being in big cities people will called you Chamula or Indio with spite. We
decided to have a song that will show how proud we are of being raza, of being
Chamulas”6
While the song is filled with narco-aesthetics elements the main focus is its emphasis upon
Chamula identity.
100% Chamula is not a typical corrido although it is perform in a corrido norteño
fashion. (The song is not telling a specific story or narrating the adventures of some anti-hero
like most corridos do)7
6
7
Quote taken from one of my interviews made by the producer/owner Domingo Santis aka “Tacho”
Mercedes Zavala ed. Formas Narrativas de la Literatura de Tradición Oral de México, 131. 3 However it shares some of the main characteristics of the corrido form; the song is in 6/8
in Waltz tempo, G major key, and starts with a short accordion introduction typical of norteño
corridos. It has a simple ABA’B’ form with different stanzas each time and a symmetrical eightsyllable verses. I will not reiterate the form of the corrido because the genre itself has
metamorphosed over time, but I will call, “100% Chamula” a corrido alterado (alertness
corrido) based on two factors, one internal and one external.
First the band thought of the song as a corrido alterado and second the song maintains
the pretense of historical truth, meaning that it seeks to reflect a true historical moment through
the use of fictional elements. The pretension of historical truth is an essential part of the
definition of corridos.8
Karteles Corrido is not written in a first person fashion like most narco-corridos are, the
lack of this element that in narco-corridos reinforce the mythology that wrapped the anti-heroic
figures, results strange in the narrative found in 100% Chamula.9 The personal distance result of
the lack of a first-person narrative somehow situated Karteles corrido in a narrative limbo.
Therefore, the identity elements found in the narratives are not determined by the narcoaesthetics. The identity elements evoking an Indigenous empowerment are the main subjects in
this particular corrido.
Not only Durango has tough men, Chiapas have tough men of their own that wears
hats and boots and have nice rides.
They are not afraid of death or devil and if they want to kill, they do it like dogs.
They don’t back out from anybody from Chamula or Durango.
8
María Luisa de la Garza, Ni Aquí Ni Allá: El Emigrante en los Corridos y en Otras Canciones Populares. (Cádiz:
Fundación Municipal de Cultura, 2005), 10.
9
Mercedes Zavala ed. Formas Narrativas de la Literatura de Tradición Oral de México, 162. 4 Among Mayan descendants you can find everything, we have plenty
Mariguana and white dust too, we have also beautiful Chamulitas (Women
from Chamula) that drive us crazy.
The first stanza establishes the two main subjects of the song; on one hand we have the use of
Durango, one of the Mexican northern states involved in the narco wars, as an archetype
employed by Karteles to evoke the whole narco-aesthetic implication. As second subject we have
the insistence upon Chamula identity stated and reinforced by the lyrics’ implicit threat. On a
first reading the text simply asserts that Chamulas are tougher than men from Durango. The
comparison of Chamulas versus Durangos and the material associations of these ‘tougher-than’
aesthetics also evoke a sort of cultural hybridity. The song finds its aesthetic power in the narcoasociations, which are loaded with the symbolism of power and social agency.
The boots, hats, and cars aesthetics of narco-corridos contrast the stereotypical
representation of indigenous communities, which have always been considered marginal,
illiterate, and, politically dispossessed groups. These communities have sought to enhance
autonomy in various ways. The fight for state rights, autonomy, and self-determination that is
inclusive of traditional practices has been a long one in communities like Chamula. Indigenous
people have been the object of subordination, inequality, exploitation and political exclusion that
results both directly and indirectly from a legal order whose ideal has been that of
homogenization and cultural assimilation.
To whom that came from Durango and also Michoacan, never get into a river if you do
not know how to swim, never offend someone from Chiapas because you will never see
the end of it.
I said it with pride, I am a hundred per cent from Chamula, I do not like to be ‘culero’
asshole and less with my countrymen, I like to be a good friend here and in any state.
Is not because I presumed but what I say is true, in Chiapas there is plenty of respectful
people, not because they are brave or have lots of money but there are cool Chamulas
afraid of anything.
The last stanza and chorus are patterned similarly; the narco clichés are acting again as
empowering elements that redefine Indigenous identity praxis. The implicit threat of the first part
again reinforces Chamula identity. However, something changes; ‘I said it with pride, I am
hundred per cent Chamula, I do not like to be an asshole and less with my countrymen, I like to
be a good friend here and in any state’. The song evokes a nobler and simpler human nature that
contrasts sharply with the violent power evokes in the narco-discourse and in fact relates to a
vernacular cultural values.
In the context of Chamula indigenous identity, narco-aesthetics carry a powerful
symbolic charge.10 Narco-corridos defiantly articulate the huge shortcomings of the Mexican
state and speak to the need for anti-heroic figures. Paradoxically, these anti-heroes result directly
from a power vacuum itself exacerbated by the narco-wars and related socio-economic crisis.
The narco-aesthetic elements employed by Karteles do not so much portray a literal relationship
to the narco wars but instead function as an anti-colonial aesthetic, one that seeks to claim an
10
Mark Cameron Edgerb El Narcotraficante: Narcocorridos & the Construction of a Cultural Persona on the U.SMexico Border (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2004), 110.
5 identity and self-determination consistent with Chamula’s “claim to inclusion within” a
‘national imagery’.
Official discourses related to ethnic identity were created to fashion an accessible
nationalistic notion meant for international consumption but within which minorities are
systematically erased on behalf of cultural assimilation. Karteles music reveals an attempt to
shape a cultural space where minority identity can be performed with more persuasive authority.
Human movement and migration phenomena have led to a post-colonial rhetoric produced by
voluntary and involuntary cultural exchange. Such rhetoric opens the possibility of creating a
transformative liminal space in which other aesthetic and community values are possible. Ethnic
identity constantly mutates in response to the pressures of colonialism, Karteles claim for a more
inclusive identity reveals a fluid, flexible landscape of cultural symbolism in which art
expressions themselves provide analytical opportunities.
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