Mexico recognized the power of song by outlawing recordings of drug ballads – or narcocorridos -  in an effort to dampen popular enthusiasm for the violent drug-lord heroes.  The U.S. Border Patrol is hoping Border Patrol Ballads – or Migra Corridos – will dampen popular enthusiasm for heading north.

Produced by the D.C.-based Hispanic advertising agency, Elevación, the songs warn of the dangers of crossing.

This from the BBC:

In one, called The Biggest Enemy, a singer called Abelardo from the Mexican state of Michoacan and his cousin Rafael set off to cross the border.
They reach the US but nature defeats them, as they wander the desert without water. Exhuasted they lie down with Abelardo waking later to find his cousin dead by his side:

“He decided to come back/ And have a burial in their town/ And as a vow/ He told his dead cousin/ If God will take my life/ That it be in my beloved land.”

An initial 5-song album was distributed free to Mexican radio stations two years ago.  The U.S. Border Patrol and Elevación are set to release a second in May.

Listen here:

el-mas-grande-enemigo

For many immigrants the recession means it’s time to head home. With unemployment among Mexican immigrants at 9.7 percent in January (up from 4.5 percent last March) Foreign Policy reports expert predictions of an exodus of nearly three million people.

Mexico’s central bank announced in late January that 20,000 of the migrants who returned for Christmas won’t go back to the United States. Officials in Mexican states such as Michoacán, Puebla, and Zacatecas, which send some of the largest numbers of migrants north each year, are predicting a mass return as more migrants give up on the land of opportunity. Fewer migrants than ever are leaving Mexico, too, according to the Mexican government, with the emigration rate dropping 46 percent since 2006.