{"id":4736,"date":"2022-10-09T09:46:20","date_gmt":"2022-10-09T13:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?p=4736"},"modified":"2022-10-09T09:53:27","modified_gmt":"2022-10-09T13:53:27","slug":"contrabando-y-traicion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/contrabando-y-traicion\/","title":{"rendered":"Contrabando y traicion (Los Tigres del Norte)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Contrabando y Traicion (Angel Gonzalez\/Los Tigres del Norte)\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/t-RGZEh1RsE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I first heard Los Tigres del Norte while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/gritenme-piedras\/\">hitchhiking around Mexico in 1986<\/a>. I was sitting in a park in Oaxaca one evening, playing guitar and waiting for something to happen, and some young guys came over and requested &#8220;Rock de la c\u00e1rcel&#8221; (Jailhouse Rock), so I played that, and a medley of &#8220;La bamba&#8221; and &#8220;Twist and Shout,&#8221; and then one of the guys asked if I could play &#8220;La banda del carro rojo&#8221; (The Red Car Gang). When I said I didn&#8217;t know it, he borrowed my notebook and wrote out the whole lyric, then invited all of us over to his place. When we got there, he had a poster of Los Tigres on the wall &#8212; or maybe a movie poster for <em>La banda del carro rojo<\/em>, with a picture of Los Tigres; I don&#8217;t remember clearly, which may mean the beer was flowing, or just that it was almost forty years ago, or both.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4739 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Tigres-guitar-booklet.jpg?resize=207%2C304&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"207\" height=\"304\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Tigres-guitar-booklet.jpg?w=300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Tigres-guitar-booklet.jpg?resize=204%2C300&amp;ssl=1 204w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 207px) 100vw, 207px\" \/>Anyway, that was my introduction to Los Tigres, and before I left Mexico I bought an LP of their greatest hits and a <em>Guitarra <\/em> <em>f\u00e1cil <\/em>booklet with lyrics and chords to a bunch of their songs, along with LPs and booklets of Los Bravos del Norte, Los Cadetes de Linares, and some other norte\u00f1o\u00a0 groups, and an LP of Los Teen Tops, who did &#8220;Rock de la c\u00e1rcel.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>That was the beginning of a long journey&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;the short version being that I ended up writing a book called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/corrido.html\"><em>Narcocorrido<\/em><\/a>, which traced my immersion in the modern corrido style and included interviews with Paulino Vargas, who wrote &#8220;La banda del carro rojo,&#8221; and a half-dozen other composers who worked with Los Tigres, and along the line the Tigres flew me to Mexico City for a massive concert on the Z\u00f3calo, then to Los Angeles for a meeting with Fonovisa records, and I&#8217;ve seen them many times since, and had a couple of meals with their leader, Jorge Hern\u00e1ndez, a brilliant and fascinating man&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and from time to time I&#8217;ve worked up versions of their songs. &#8220;La banda del carro rojo&#8221; was the first, but I never performed it and don&#8217;t remember all the words. <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-4741\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Croatian-narco-cover-small.jpg?resize=206%2C267&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"206\" height=\"267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Croatian-narco-cover-small.jpg?w=260&amp;ssl=1 260w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Croatian-narco-cover-small.jpg?resize=231%2C300&amp;ssl=1 231w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 206px) 100vw, 206px\" \/>I&#8217;ve enjoyed playing ranchera songs &#8212; an earlier post has my version of &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/gritenme-piedras\/\">Gritenme piedras del campo<\/a>&#8221; &#8212; though I rarely performed them, because I rarely had audiences that understood the words.\u00a0 But in the mid 2000s <em>Narcocorrido <\/em>was translated into Croatian and I arranged to do a book tour and figured I should play something at the readings.<\/p>\n<p>After fooling around with a few options, I settled on &#8220;Contrabando y traici\u00f3n,&#8221; the song that started it all in the early 1970s. I tell the whole story in my book &#8212; or rather, let the song&#8217;s composer, Angel Gonz\u00e1lez, tell the story. He normally wrote socially conscious or romantic songs and had mixed feelings about the success of this one, which is about a female drug trafficker, Camelia la texana, who makes a successful run to Los Angeles with her car tires full of marijuana, learns that her lover and partner, Emilio Varela, is leaving her for another woman &#8212; so shoots him and disappears with the money.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4740 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Emilio-Varela-vs-Camelia-La-Texana.jpg?resize=303%2C229&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"303\" height=\"229\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Emilio-Varela-vs-Camelia-La-Texana.jpg?w=500&amp;ssl=1 500w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Emilio-Varela-vs-Camelia-La-Texana.jpg?resize=300%2C227&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 303px) 100vw, 303px\" \/>The song was originally recorded by a mariachi singer named Joe Flores, but the Tigres&#8217; version was definitive and made them into international stars, as well as spawning a string of low-budget action movies: first <em>Contrabando y traici\u00f3n<\/em>, then <em>Mataron a Camelia<\/em>, <em>El hijo de Camelia<\/em>, <em>Emilio Varela vs. Camelia la texana<\/em>&#8230; and who knows how many more. Los Tigres also made almost twenty movies, some of which are pretty interesting &#8212; for example <em>La jaula de oro<\/em>, about the tribulations of an undocumented Mexican immigrant raising a family in California.<\/p>\n<p>There is plenty more to be said about all of this, which is why I wrote a book and I&#8217;ll probably write more, because Los Tigres and the corrido world continue to fascinate me. Meanwhile, this is how I began.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I first heard Los Tigres del Norte while hitchhiking around Mexico in 1986. I was sitting in a park in Oaxaca one evening, playing guitar and waiting for something to happen, and some young guys came over and requested &#8220;Rock de la c\u00e1rcel&#8221; (Jailhouse Rock), so I played that, and a medley of &#8220;La bamba&#8221; &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/contrabando-y-traicion\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Contrabando y traicion (Los Tigres del Norte)<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Contrabando y Traicion (Tigres del Norte) - Elijah Wald Songobiography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The song that started the wave of narco-corridos, with some stories about how I got interested in that music and Los Tigres del Norte.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/contrabando-y-traicion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Contrabando y Traicion (Tigres del Norte) - Elijah Wald Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The song that started the wave of narco-corridos, with some stories about how I got interested in that music and Los Tigres del Norte.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/contrabando-y-traicion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-10-09T13:46:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-10-09T13:53:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Emilio-Varela-vs-Camelia-La-Texana.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"378\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Emilio-Varela-vs-Camelia-La-Texana.jpg?fit=500%2C378&ssl=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/contrabando-y-traicion\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/contrabando-y-traicion\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elijah Wald\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"headline\":\"Contrabando y traicion (Los Tigres del Norte)\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-10-09T13:46:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-10-09T13:53:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/contrabando-y-traicion\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":689,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/contrabando-y-traicion\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/10\\\/Tigres-guitar-booklet.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/contrabando-y-traicion\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/contrabando-y-traicion\\\/\",\"name\":\"Contrabando y Traicion (Tigres del Norte) - Elijah Wald Songobiography\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/contrabando-y-traicion\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/contrabando-y-traicion\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/10\\\/Tigres-guitar-booklet.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-10-09T13:46:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-10-09T13:53:27+00:00\",\"description\":\"The song that started the wave of narco-corridos, with some stories about how I got interested in that music and Los Tigres del Norte.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/contrabando-y-traicion\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/contrabando-y-traicion\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/contrabando-y-traicion\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/10\\\/Tigres-guitar-booklet.jpg?fit=300%2C441&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/10\\\/Tigres-guitar-booklet.jpg?fit=300%2C441&ssl=1\",\"width\":300,\"height\":441},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/contrabando-y-traicion\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Contrabando y traicion (Los Tigres del Norte)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Old Friends: A Songobiography\",\"description\":\"Revisiting the songs that have made a home in my head\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\",\"name\":\"Elijah Wald\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"width\":70,\"height\":85,\"caption\":\"Elijah Wald\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Contrabando y Traicion (Tigres del Norte) - Elijah Wald Songobiography","description":"The song that started the wave of narco-corridos, with some stories about how I got interested in that music and Los Tigres del Norte.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/contrabando-y-traicion\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Contrabando y Traicion (Tigres del Norte) - Elijah Wald Songobiography","og_description":"The song that started the wave of narco-corridos, with some stories about how I got interested in that music and Los Tigres del Norte.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/contrabando-y-traicion\/","og_site_name":"Old Friends: A Songobiography","article_published_time":"2022-10-09T13:46:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-10-09T13:53:27+00:00","og_image":[{"width":500,"height":378,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Emilio-Varela-vs-Camelia-La-Texana.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Elijah Wald","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_image":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Emilio-Varela-vs-Camelia-La-Texana.jpg?fit=500%2C378&ssl=1","twitter_creator":"@ElijahWald","twitter_site":"@ElijahWald","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Elijah Wald","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/contrabando-y-traicion\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/contrabando-y-traicion\/"},"author":{"name":"Elijah Wald","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"headline":"Contrabando y traicion (Los Tigres del Norte)","datePublished":"2022-10-09T13:46:20+00:00","dateModified":"2022-10-09T13:53:27+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/contrabando-y-traicion\/"},"wordCount":689,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/contrabando-y-traicion\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Tigres-guitar-booklet.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/contrabando-y-traicion\/","url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/contrabando-y-traicion\/","name":"Contrabando y Traicion (Tigres del Norte) - Elijah Wald Songobiography","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/contrabando-y-traicion\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/contrabando-y-traicion\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Tigres-guitar-booklet.jpg","datePublished":"2022-10-09T13:46:20+00:00","dateModified":"2022-10-09T13:53:27+00:00","description":"The song that started the wave of narco-corridos, with some stories about how I got interested in that music and Los Tigres del Norte.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/contrabando-y-traicion\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/contrabando-y-traicion\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/contrabando-y-traicion\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Tigres-guitar-booklet.jpg?fit=300%2C441&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Tigres-guitar-booklet.jpg?fit=300%2C441&ssl=1","width":300,"height":441},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/contrabando-y-traicion\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Contrabando y traicion (Los Tigres del Norte)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/","name":"Old Friends: A Songobiography","description":"Revisiting the songs that have made a home in my head","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9","name":"Elijah Wald","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","width":70,"height":85,"caption":"Elijah Wald"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1"}}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4838,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/la-tumba-del-mojado\/","url_meta":{"origin":4736,"position":0},"title":"La Tumba del Mojado (Paulino Vargas\/Migration)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"February 24, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Paulino Vargas was\u00a0 the defining master of the modern Mexican corrido and \"La tumba del mojado\" is one of his masterpieces. Though most famous for his outlaw corridos, he was a brilliantly versatile chronicler of Mexican life, and composed insightful and poetic songs about cross-border migration, government corruption, and other\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Paulino-Vargas.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5745,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/ni-dinero-ni-nada\/","url_meta":{"origin":4736,"position":1},"title":"Ni el dinero ni nada (Jos\u00e9 Alfredo Jim\u00e9nez)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"May 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Ni el dinero ni nada\" is a Mexican counterpart of \"Down in the Boondocks\" (last week's post) and \"Mansion on the Hill,\" a song in the voice of a poor boy speaking to the rich girl he loves and cannot win. Because I am as I am, without reason you\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Jose-Alfredo-Jimenez-scaled-e1746839835449.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5856,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/besos-y-copas\/","url_meta":{"origin":4736,"position":2},"title":"Besos y Copas (Victor Cordero)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"July 26, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I learned \"Besos y copas\" from the soundtrack album to Chulas Fronteras, Les Blank's documentary about norte\u00f1o music, which I'm pretty sure I owned before seeing the film. It was performed by Chavela Ortiz, a fine singer and accordion player, who fronted the San Jose, California, group\u00a0Brown Express and was\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Chavela-Ortiz-e1752187362926.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1920,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/leave-pretty-mama\/","url_meta":{"origin":4736,"position":3},"title":"If You Leave Me Pretty Mama (Germany\/Austria)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"July 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This was the one Van Ronk original on Dave's first album, and another song I'd brought to Europe on cassette. I don't remember where I took the time to figure out the guitar part, but in my memory it is forever linked to my first performance at a rock festival.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Les Brown LP","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Les-Brown-LP-300x294.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2535,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/framed\/","url_meta":{"origin":4736,"position":4},"title":"Framed (Robins\/Leiber &#038; Stoller\/racism)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"February 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Thanks to cell phone videos and Black Lives Matter, it has become a lot harder for white Americans to ignore how badly black Americans are routinely treated by the US legal system... though that doesn't mean everybody now gets it, or wants to get it. One way people don't get\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Robins-for-framed-300x196.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3801,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/me-and-billy\/","url_meta":{"origin":4736,"position":5},"title":"Me and Billy the Kid (Joe Ely)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"June 30, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I've already written about my introduction to Joe Ely and my affection for his work, and I'm happy to revisit the subject, because I owe him a lot. Beyond the great songs I learned off his records, and the records themselves, it was a whole attitude toward music. Along with\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Ely-Liberty-Lunch-297x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4736"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4755,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4736\/revisions\/4755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}