excerpts from BBC
DRUG MUSEUM
Gold plated gun. Narco traffikers have so much style.
Narco attire...so badass
Display cases feature weapons seized from drug traffickers. Among numerous jewel-studded firearms lies a gold plated handgun with an embossed portrait of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Also on display is a diamond encrusted cell phone that once belonged to Daniel Pérez Rojas, one of the founders of the notoriously violent Zetas cartel. The museum’s exhibits show how drugs have been used since ancient times, how poppy is grown today in narco camps, how heroin is produced in drug labs, and how narcotics are smuggled inside everything from donuts and encyclopaedias to propane tanks and stuffed animals. Near the exit, a plaque commemorates more than 600 Mexican soldiers who have died fighting the cartels over the last 30 years.
El Museo de Enervantes is perhaps one of the most fascinating museums in the world – but you can’t go there. Operated by the Ministry of Defence, this “secret museum” is not open to the public. It is intended for military use only — primarily in the training of new soldiers.
Drugs hidden inside Virgin mural
A SOUNDTRACK FOR THE DRUG TRADE
Narcocorridos are the popular drug ballads populating radio airwaves throughout Mexico. Their mix of explicit lyrics, accordions, tubas and 12-string acoustic guitars make for an odd cross between gangsta rap and polka-esque folk music. Some of these songs stir up controversy by glorifying the drug trade, while others play out more like Greek tragedies, the protagonists realizing their own fatal flaws all too late. These pop songs are undeniably popular, reaching Mexican communities in North America as well.
NARCO STREET ART
Another place to find art documenting drug culture is the street itself. Street artist Watchavato, for example, tags the walls of Mexico City with stencil prints of Jesus Malverde, the patron saint of drug dealers. Malverde, believed to have been a sympathetic bandit killed by the authorities, is revered as a Robin Hood figure in the drug world. (One of the many shrines to this unlikely saint is even displayed in the military’s El Museo de Enervantes.) Watchavato’s stickers, prints and paintings, which also depict AK-47s, flashy cars and other by-products of narcotrafficking, can be seen throughout Mexico’s capital.
NARCOCINEMA
Narcocinema has also surfaced as a genre unto itself. It is an industry of alternative films which, despite generally going straight to DVD, have become very popular in regions of Mexico and the US plagued by drug violence, according to the BBC. Most of these low-budget movies are based on true stories of Mexican drug barons. El Pozolero, for example, tells the story of Santiago Meza Lopez (nicknamed “El Pozolero”, or “The Stew Maker”), who confessed in 2009 to dissolving 300 dead bodies in tubs of acid.
Some of these movies even have suspected ties to the drug cartels themselves. Drug lord Edgar Valdez, for one, admitted to financing a narco biopic about his life. The movie was subsequently used by authorities to aid in narcotics investigations.
Check this out by Vice:
http://www.vbs.tv/es-mx/watch/the-vice-guide-to-film–2/mexican-narco-cinema-part-1-of-3
NARCO NOVELAS (Drug Soap Operas)
Narcocultura has also made its way into soap operas. Narco novelas, or drug-related soaps, tend to focus on female characters, likely because they target a female audience, NPR conjectures. La Reina del Sur (Queen of the South), for instance, is a popular narco novela airing on Telemundo. Based on a novel by former war correspondent Arturo Pérez-Reverte Gutiérrez, it has been the first soap to focus on a female drug lord. Another popular novela, Muñecas de la Mafia (Mafia Dolls), follows the women who date and marry drug dealers in Mexico and Colombia.
“The violence in Mexico is something that permeates all aspects of culture. You can’t escape it.”
