Counterculture in Mexican Regional Music
Diego Martín Velázquez Caballero
The debate surrounding the control of popular music in Mexico sometimes seems to misunderstand the country's situation. The US military intervention is presented right under the eyes of the republic as representing, for them, a narco-society, and on the nationalist side, the proliferation of musical messages is hailed as freedom of expression. The world is upside down.
It is strange that government intervention is rejected in areas that are necessary for social well-being. Beyond demanding that President Claudia Sheinbaum respect the symbolic devices of drug trafficking, one might wonder if these cultural controversies would convince Donald Trump to withdraw his battleships, destroyers, and aircraft carriers from the country's maritime borders.
If the Radio and Television Law in Mexico were enforced, like the rule of law, for example, the country's configuration would surely be different; However, the problem is institutional weakness, the government's limited capacity to enforce the law. It is unfair to compare cultural freedom in the Western world with what is happening in Mexico. Certainly, in the United States, unlimited freedom exists, but it is also true that state surveillance of the counterculture has managed to ward off the negative and terrorist impact that some national and foreign elements seek to generate with certain actions. In the experience of Germany and France, Islamic culture and fascism are regulated by historical memory and the national security circumstances they imply; establishing almost authoritarian but legitimate forms that force democracies to defend themselves and bring debate and knowledge of the issue into the public sphere.
The counterculture can represent the entry of anti-values that disrupt a given social order. The weakness of the Mexican state vis-à-vis the powers that be makes the counterculture discourse the true hegemonic one, and that is how things are going for us. During the war waged by the Mexican state against drug trafficking, the symbolic production of drugs was negatively stigmatized, but this too has served little purpose. What would be the opinion of the searching mothers and victims of the narco-war regarding the unregulated production of the music that accompanies this context?
The legalization of drugs and narco-culture can set the tone for strengthening the state, because they allow for the establishment of a legal framework and even the generation of taxes and revenues; however, state intervention and public debate are important. As long as state weakness persists, the de facto and hegemonic powers will eventually crush us all until a monster like Yankee Imperialism crushes them, including all of Mexican society. Freedom is conditioned by the capacity that the social contract grants to the leader and the social awareness of the importance of public morality. President Claudia Sheinbaum is forced to resume the Calderónist war and rethink the strength of the state to avoid another material and symbolic defeat.
