Meet the Mexican soldier trying to revamp a musical genre accused of
glorifying cartels
[April 07, 2025]
By MEGAN JANETSKY
MEXICO CITY (AP) — At a Mexican military base, Captain Eduardo Barrón
picks up not a rifle but a microphone. Swaying boot-to-boot, he belts
out a song as the sounds of trumpets and accordions roar from a band of
a dozen camouflage-clad soldiers.
The rhythmic style — known as a corrido — is recognizable to just about
every soul in the Latin American nation of 130 million. But Barrón’s
lyrics diverge sharply from those blaring on speakers across Mexico.
“I still remember the day I joined the military,” he crooned. “This is a
dream my soul longed for, and if I were to live another life, I’d become
a soldier again.”
Barrón, who performs under the name “Eddy Barrón," began releasing music
videos and songs on Spotify last year in coordination with the Mexican
military. His lyrics extol the army’s virtues, celebrate proud parents
and honor the fallen.
They stand in stark contrast to the controversial narco corridos, a
subgenre that has sparked controversy as famed artists pay homage to
cartel bosses, portraying them as rebels going against the system.
Faced with the challenge of addressing a musical style that depicts
cartel violence, local governments across Mexico have increasingly
banned performances and pursued criminal investigations of bands and
musicians. Mexico’s president even vowed to reduce the popularity of
narco corridos while promoting other, less violent musical styles.
But Barrón, 33, is taking a different approach. Instead of censorship,
he wants to build upon the momentum with his own military corridos, an
effort to both infuse the genre with more socially acceptable lyrics and
recruit young people to the military.
“Narco life is in style and they make it sound really pretty … but the
reality is different,” he said. “We’re playing our part to invite young
people to join this movement of positive music.”
A vow to change Mexican music
Barron's military ballads are part of a wider government push
spearheaded by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has proposed
that the government promote corridos about “love, falling out of love
and peace.”
She even announced a government-sponsored Mexican music competition in
the northern state of Durango showcasing music that avoids “glorifying
violence, drugs and discrimination against women.”
“It will completely change Mexican music,” she said.
But in a subculture long defined by resistance and putting words to the
harsh realities facing the poor, the government's initiatives around the
genre have been met with skepticism about official attempts to promote
family-friendly narratives.
“I don't think using corridos as a way to incorporate other kinds of
narratives, is a bad idea,” said José Manuel Valenzuela, a Tijuana
sociologist who studies the genre. “There are a lot of songs that sing
of peace and love. It’s just that those aren’t the ones that are turning
out to be hits … because we’re living in a moment of aggrieved youth.”
Singing through social issues
Corridos were born in the 19th century, their classical band instruments
and the accordion rooted in German and Polish migration to Mexico. At a
time of widespread illiteracy, they were used widely to pass on oral
histories.
The ballads took off during the Mexican revolution, when they were used
to share stories of war heroes and glory from the conflict.
That is why Barrón says he didn’t invent military corridos, but that
he’s simply bringing them back.
“Corridos come from the revolution, and we’re doing the same thing as
those soldiers and revolutionaries, albeit in a different age, but the
result is the same,” he said.
The genre evolved over generations, from singing about smuggling tequila
during the 1920’s Prohibition era in corridos tequileros to grappling
with the rising wave of cartel violence in Mexico with narco corridos.
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A soldier plays an accordion during the performance of a corrido for
the media at a military base in Mexico City, Monday, March 10, 2025.
(AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
 “All the big social issues are told
through corridos,” Valenzuela said. “It’s a metaphor to speak about
what we’ve been living through.”
Weapons and barbed wire as inspiration
Barrón said he would play guitar with his father’s Mexican regional
music band as a teenager, and write his own music. He would bring
his guitar to play on deployments after he joined the army at 20.
In 2021, he said he began writing his own songs about his time in
the military and singing with a military FX Band, named after the
type of gun the military uses. But the music never went public.
Around 2023, the genre exploded when artists like Peso Pluma, Fuerza
Regida and Natanael Cano began to mix the classic style with trap
music in what are known as corridos tumbados. That same year, Peso
Pluma bested Taylor Swift as the most streamed artist on YouTube.
A year later, the Mexican army decided to post Barrón's music under
his artistic name.
The music videos, which have clocked tens of thousands of views on
YouTube alone, are layered with images of heavy duty weapons, the
Mexican flag, barbed wire and Barrón belting out in camouflage and
infrared goggles pulled above his military helmet.
Originally intended to entertain troops and boost military
recruitment among young Mexicans, Barrón's songs took on a different
meaning amidst the renewed controversy that has come with the
corridos boom.
The musical style has long been criticized for romanticizing cartel
violence, but has hit an inflection point in recent years.
Mexican states have implemented performance bans, and prominent
artists have received death threats, often claiming to be from rival
cartels whose leaders are glorified in their music. And musicians
have been forced to cancel shows due to concerns about potential
violence.
The controversy intensified last week, after the face of top cartel
boss Nemesio Rubén “El Mencho” Oseguera was projected onto a large
screen behind the band Los Alegres del Barranco at a music festival
in the northern state of Jalisco. The incident, occurring shortly
after Oseguera’s cartel was linked to a ranch under investigation as
a training camp and body disposal site in Jalisco, sent shockwaves
across Mexico.
The performance was met with a cascade of criticisms. Two Mexican
states announced criminal investigations, concerts were cancelled
and the Trump administration revoked the U.S. visas of band members.
It also marked a hardening in tone by Sheinbaum, who called for an
investigation into the concert, adding: “You can’t justify violence
or criminal groups.”
Barrón, who opposes a ban on corridos, believes the solution is to
continue to sing cloaked in camouflage with the hopes of reclaiming
the Mexican music from his childhood from the negative stereotypes
that have grown to define it.
He said the army is already planning to release new songs in the
coming months.
"Sadly, we've been stuck with this label of corridos as negative
music," he said. “A better approach is to reclaim the genre and take
a different path to shift the conversation.”
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