"Elijah Walds Narcocorrido is more than an exposé of a musical genre and a contemporary problem, it is a journey into the complex nuances of Mexican social and cultural history. His book is a most significant contribution to the bibliography on travel literature by foreign observers to Mexico since colonial times. It will be of interest to a wide range of specialists in diverse fields as well as to the casual reader who will enjoy the pleasure of a rich narrative of adventure and detective work." --Guillermo E. Hernández, Ph.D., Director of the UCLA-Chicano Studies Research Center "Through the stories of the corrido-crafters themselves, Wald uncovers a world desperate for heroes. At once tragic and hopeful, the results of his journey holds a mirror up to life on both sides of the border." --Louie Perez, of Los Lobos "It is a huge business, drugs, drug-fueled revolution, and singing about them, and Wald does a superb job of taking his readers into that world." --Kirkus Review "insightful . . . an enlightening rendezvous. . . . Wald patiently explores the half-accomplished modernity that colors northern Mexico . . . [his] detours are a midrash to understand the overall context that nurtures this kind of transnational phenomenon." --Ilan Stavans, in The Nation "Between bottles of beer, key shots of cocaine and several trips to the strip clubs, Wald spends over a year hitchhiking, busing and generally roughing it through Mexico and the Southwest United States. Wald is not your typical gringo tourist, however. He may be no drug czar, but he knows his field. . . .Wald is persistent and seems to always find what he's looking for. In the beautifully secluded mountain villages of Atoyac, in the Mexican state of Guerrero, he finds the complex struggles of the indigenous tribes expressed in their corridos about Subcomandante Marcos and the victims of the Aguas Blancas massacre -- heroes truly worthy of a song." --San Francisco Chronicle "Half enthusiast and half ethnomusicologist, Wald offers an engaging, fascinating, and well-written account of a much-neglected musical style that will be irresistible to readers of all types." --Library Journal "Estupenda investigación en: Narcocorrido." "Una asombrosa documentación de datos, minuciosamente elaborados y magníficamente comentados por el autor . . . esta edición es la gran oportunidad de leer lo correspondiente a este apasionante reflejo, cargado de pasión y de coraje del pueblo mexicano." --La Prensa San Diego "Wald is an engaging writer, and Narcocorrido is a must-have for those wanting an introduction to the genre." --Austin Chronicle "Wald's book is most useful in providing a forgotten perspective on the War on Drugs--that of ordinary Mexicans who have to grow or smuggle drugs to get ahead or even survive, and see Washington's bellicose rhetoric as bunch of hypocrisy." --High Times "In his addictive history of this musical phenomenon, Elijah Wald braves the not inconsequential danger of venturing to the music's home turf." --Maxim Blender "The evolution of Mexicos narcocultura and its music, the narcocorrido, is brilliantly captured in Elijah Walds Narcocorrido." --Orange County Weekly ". . . a skillful and entertaining examination of a music genre, its history and the key people who made it happen." --New Times LA "Wald limns ... larger-than-life legends and tragic heroes aplenty, such as Chalino Sanchez, whose rise ... is "a Mexican version of the Tupac Shakur story." A worthy shelf mate for Michael Eric Dyson's brainy Shakur study, Holler If You Hear Me." --Booklist return to Narcocorrido page | |