Bad Bunny during the Spotify Awards in Mexico City on March 5, 2020. (Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Spotify)
The ban will apply to concert venues in Chihuahua and could also target famous singers such as the Puerto Rican band Bad Bunny.
The city of Chihuahua, capital of the northwestern state of Mexico of the same name, has amended its Entertainment and Performance Rules to ban the performance of misogynistic lyrics or lyrics that incite violence against women in clubs and venues where live music is played. Violators face a fine of up to 1.2 million pesos (about 65 euros): the money collected from the fines will be used in the municipality’s programs for women and for shelters for those who have suffered from domestic violence.
Among the artists that could be affected by the new normal are the country’s very popular genres such as reggaeton, corridos tumbados and narcocoridos: the latter are subgenres that often talk about the deeds of drug dealers, glorifying them, glorifying violence. or some courage. Popular Puerto Rican reggaeton artist Bad Bunny, whose concerts sold out in the country last year, and most popular Mexican artist Peso Pluma may no longer be welcome in Chihuahua due to misogyny, several newspapers report.
The reform was promoted by adviser Patricia Uleite at the head of the Commission on Women, Family and Gender Equality. It was approved unanimously with the support of a majority of conservative and Christian Democrat National Action Party (PAN) councilors, members of Morena, the party of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Labor Party and the Civil Movement Left.
Patricia Uleite explained that the ban aims to prevent gender-based violence and punish behavior that denigrates women and is still a “structural reality”: the action that helps eradicate it matters.”
In the first five months of 2023, 1,383 domestic violence complaints were filed in Chihuahua, according to official figures, with a 21 percent increase in cases from April to May. According to statistics, 249 calls were received in January, 222 in February, 302 in March, 277 in April, and 336 in May. Human. associated with this type of crime.
Explaining the ban, Chihuahua Mayor Marco Bonilla specified that “anyone who sings songs that promote violence against women” will be sanctioned, defining that violence as a “pandemic” and specifying that they will be considered violent lyrics that objectify and sexualize women. . He said that the city’s charter change was not meant for any particular musical genre.
– Read also: Music that tells and celebrates the drug trade in Mexico
In Mexico, to prevent the spread of violence and “drug culture” through music, there have been many attempts at censorship over the years. Some states banned the broadcast of narcocorridos on the radio, some radio stations voluntarily chose not to broadcast them, and some governors tried to ban them from listening to bars or nightclubs.
Last May, Cancun, a popular tourist destination on the country’s east coast, for example, approved a series of measures to ban concerts with lyrics promoting violence. But the Chihuahua initiative is the first of its kind because it specifically aims to combat violence against women.
Veronica Terrazas, president of an association that works with women and girls in Chihuahua, said that “violence has been recognized as a social and public health problem both in Mexico and in the rest of the world” and that “it must be understood that, among all existing inequalities on the basis of sex is the most ancient: from here all other inequalities originate, which is why domestic violence is so structural. That is why it is important for her to intervene at all levels “with cultural changes that do not allow for any kind of discrimination.”
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