I am 100% gringo. I don’t have an ounce of Spanish/Latino in my body. But I have a very soft spot in my heart for Mexico. I am married to a Mexican national. I love Mexico as a country. I love Mexican food. I love my extended Mexican family and their culture. I love the Mayan / Incan / Olmec pyramids and artifacts. I love the people (most of them that is). They are so much nicer than your typical European, Russian, Chinese, or South American citizens.
That being said, they have cartels. Drug cartels. Gasoline stealing cartels. Human smuggling cartels. Weapons trafficking cartels. Money laundering cartels. And they are doing business to the tunes of tens of billions of dollars a year, every year, year after year.
So why are they against musicians? Audio artists? It makes little sense to a non-Mexican.
Every year there is a large fair in the city of Metepec. The 2021 Metepec opened Friday. Friday morning “narco banners” were found hung around the city threatening the lives of any musicians who took the stage at the Metepec Fair. The banners were signed by the Familia Michoacana
Speculation was that the cartel Familia Michoacana had not received the proper donation from the fair promoter, Mario García. It’s just business in Mexico.
The banners read:
“Urgent message: We inform all the artists who were going to perform in the Metepec Fair not to perform at that venue, to avoid the spilling of innocent blood including theirs … due to the actions of that bum, the businessman Mario García, they are prohibited from performing. Respect our organization and we will respect your lives. Familia Michoacana,” read the banners.
It wasn’t enough for the cartels to ruin every other vestige of beauty and decency in Mexico, they now have to ruin people simply enjoying music?
DON’T TOUCH MY AMERICANA!