I like to work
And if the order is to kill
that is not questioned
The verse comes from Gavilán II, a song by Mexican Peso Pluma, 24, and his cousin Tito Double P. It has 56 million views on YouTube. It is not one of Peso Pluma's biggest hits, but it is the type of lyric that makes a part of Chilean society uncomfortable, especially politicians who have been advocating for days that the Viña del Mar festival ban the artist's participation cancels. They believe their songs are an excuse for drug trafficking and violence and that giving them a platform in the huge music competition means normalizing drug culture. The debate over his participation has spread to the La Moneda presidential palace and Congress. The Academy, for its part, is split between those who support suspending the show and those who claim it won't change young people's ability to listen to it. They propose to end a discussion if the security crisis that the country is going through forces an opening.
Peso Pluma is not an artist who receives much media attention in Chile. Her name came up when Rolling Stone magazine named her song Ella Baila Sola the best song of 2023 or when she flooded the Movistar Arena as part of her $1.8 million international tour. However, an opinion column by sociologist Alberto Mayol last week changed the situation by suggesting that he would give a platform to a drug culture promoter at a public event broadcast on a state broadcaster.
The text caused several shocks. Representative Joanna Pérez of the centrist Democratic Party presented a bill banning the participation of artists who promote drug trafficking and other criminal activities in major events financed with public funds, while the board of Chilean National Television (TVN), of the public television channel, which provided that The company responsible for part of the management and broadcasting of the Viña del Mar festival requested this Tuesday to cancel the participation of the Mexican singer on the grounds that “there are repertoires that allude to, cannot share, transmit or promote violence, drug trafficking and others.” Elements related to the so-called narcoculture.” Now the municipality of Viña del Mar and Canal 13, the other members of the festival commission, have to make a decision.
So far, Mayor Macarena Ripamonti, a member of the Democratic Revolution of the Frente Amplio, has not commented on the controversy. For the festival, the television channels that act as producers of the event must propose a list of artists to the municipality, which approves or rejects each individual artist. This newspaper attempted to contact Mayor Ripamontti without success.
“If the matter has escalated this way, it is neither because the column is exceptional nor because the number of readers who read me regularly is huge,” Mayol told EL PAÍS. “It was precisely because it touched hearts. “It gave rise to the feeling that we need to seriously discuss this issue, at least at the political level, and not remain inactive.” Marisol García, a journalist specializing in Chilean popular music, believes it is necessary to expose pop music and its connections to violence and their effects but believes that this discussion goes far beyond the Peso Pluma figure. “In recent years there has been a neglect of developments in the trap where minors show up with weapons or apologize for violence. “It is necessary to discuss it, but I have not seen any concern about this type of debate and I am surprised that it is suddenly being established by the arrival of a successful musician.”
The researcher adds: “Some urban music opens up a field of discussion because it promotes consumerism, the eroticization of minors and violence in a worrying way.” But I doubt that the noise made by the featherweight controversy has the level of depth and Courage that these discussions require. I am not very confident that this controversy will reach its peak,” adds García.
Anthropologist Carla Pinochet, a researcher at the Millennium Nucleus in Musical and Sound Cultures (CMUS), rules out the efficiency of censorship mechanisms, which can also be accommodating depending on the ruling authority. “What happened to featherweight? Before, not many people knew him, and now everyone knows him,” says Pinochet. “Instead of banning the music that is heard in the urban peripheries today, we should propose special programs to discuss pressing problems such as drug culture that we as a society cannot address.” The media can play a very important role, the workshops where young people create their digital productions, in popular libraries… We have to listen to those who listen to this music,” says the researcher.
Chilean philosopher Lucy Oporto believes that Peso Pluma's participation should be canceled, although she sees this as difficult due to economic interests. “It is a danger to the city, which has already deteriorated. I would not be surprised if something similar to what has already happened happened on the occasion of the drug recovery and drug funerals,” he says from Valparaíso, the neighboring town of Viña del Mar, where he lives. The collective fascination that these young pseudo-artists have with others young people and many educated adults (Marcianeke, without elaborating) is due to what they represent: the ability to make money quickly, fame and influence, as the apotheosis of consumer society and its scourges, even if this the extinction of the human, physical and psychological and the annihilation of youth,” Porto claims.
The debate over drug culture hits Chile at a delicate moment. The country is facing a serious security crisis with an increase in violent crimes such as firearm homicides. A few weeks ago, three people – including a 13-year-old girl – died as a result of a shooting during the recording of a music video by a city artist in the city of La Victoria, a popular and emblematic neighborhood of Santiago. Last Saturday, a 10-year-old girl was murdered in Maipú, a popular and populous community, and on Monday it was learned of the murder of a man in an area close to the crime scene.
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