Pursuits

Songwriter's Ode to 'El Chapo' Becomes a YouTube Hit

Culiacan, Mexico, on Feb. 26Photograph by Jonathan Telles/El Debate de Culiacan/AP Photo

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By Benjamin Bain and Flynn McRoberts

March 5, 2014 at 10:30 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has a complex relationship with Mexicans living in the U.S. Consider Chicago songwriter Jacqueline Alderete. Shortly after the drug lord was arrested on Feb. 22, Alderete composed a so-called narcocorrido—a folk song about the exploits of traffickers—that has already drawn more than 20,000 hits on YouTube. Her day job: working to keep kids off drugs and out of gangs.

Alderete wrote La Captura del Chapo Corrido in just 35 minutes, knowing there would be an eager audience for it. Songs about Chapo are the most-requested from her family’s band, which includes her 12-string guitarist husband, Arturo Ochoa, and her 17-year-old daughter, Delia Robles, who plays the accordion. (They taped the video in the family room of their home.)