When Alejandro Carrillo was commissioned to adapt a new version of Romeo and Julietthe classic by William Shakespeare, hesitated for a moment, due to the type of proposal. Carrillo (Mexico City, 41 years old) was approached by producer Álvaro Ortiz with a project from Editorial Audiolibre: an adaptation of the famous Shakespearean love story, but in the midst of the chaos and brutality unleashed by the drug trafficking violence that bleeds the north of Mexico. Carrillo was suspicious, but was soon attracted by the originality of the project, because it would be an audiobook narrated by 15 actors to the sound of the so-called corridos tumbados, trap, urban music from the northern areas of the Mexican territory, which tell stories based on the so-called narcoculture. “I’m not a big fan of stories narcos“I don’t like them because they fall into clichés, but what made the proposal interesting was the whole corrido tumbado thing and the fact that it also dealt with a very current topic,” explains the author. “I was interested in what that music means to the kids in those areas,” he adds.
Carillo accepted the proposal and worked on the script with César Gándara. During the following months they did research, re-read the original version of Shakespeare’s tragedy, other adaptations in books and films and got to work. “We wrote the script in the first four months, we delivered it and then it went to the production part. Álvaro Ortiz, the producer, was in close contact with us and proposed this type of music,” he adds. Thus, in addition to the story with its dialogues, the authors also wrote the songs that mark the passage of the new old tragedy. “The original proposal was that the adaptation would be in the context of the narcobut we found this narco “The current version of corridos tumbados, which is also a kind of fiction of what that culture is that appears in that type of songs. I hadn’t gotten into corridos tumbados, but I started listening to them and it was amazing. I became a fan by studying the language, the linguistic keys, the structural forms. Basically, the preparation was to jam ourselves with corridos tumbados,” says Carrillo.
The entire process of creating the work lasted a year and the audiobook is now available to the public, titled Love lying downThe story tells of the impossible love of two teenagers, Romina and Julito, children of two families of drug traffickers at open war over territory and to win the favor of the “Boss,” the drug lord of drug traffickers, who represents any of those monsters who, with their violence, have sown the territory of northern Mexico with corpses.
There are no real names here. The story begins with a female voice with a northern accent inviting us to learn about this tragedy: “What’s up, plebes, readies So I can throw a corrido at you? Put your caps on your side and pay attention to hear the story of two very warlike families, of equal power. Both part of the same cartel, whose name I will not remember so as not to get into trouble. Two families, one city, the same hatred, a very bad, criminal hatred, the kind that burns from generation to generation. And you know how things are: so much mess between these families that the city is painted with blood and the plebs, Well, stained with blood, too. The bad thing is that between that entrails of hate and bales and checkpoints and Lamborghinis and bazookas and fucking headless ones, two lovers were born and the most bitchy love story I have ever known.”
This story takes place in Culiona, the fictional port city that is the battleground contested by the Montes and Carrillo families. Although the families were already mortally at odds, their hatred increased when the “boss of bosses,” The Lord of the Mountainset his sights on that city and made both clans compete for his favors. The disputes turned Culiona into a hell of gunshots, screams, blood, death and missing persons. A city covered in smoke, “a fucking carnage.”
The Carrillos’ daughter, Romina, 15, in her bubble of wealth, spends her days earning followers, their valuable followers on social networks, what is now called influencer. On social networks he publishes photographs, storiesvideos, comments and shows off her jewelry and designer dresses. The teenage son of the Montes, Julito, yearns to achieve glory with music, composes corridos tumbados and is part of a local band. Chance makes them meet and the sparks of love explode like the grenades with which their parents destroy their city. From the beginning they know that it is a forbidden love, but they will be willing to take it to the ultimate consequences. And here there is no spoilerbecause Shakespeare has already told us how this romantic tragedy ends.
The valuable thing about the seven-chapter play is its production. It features 15 actors, who tell the story in detail with that musical and sensual northern accent. Everything is accompanied by sounds and music that allow the listener to place themselves in the passion of the young people, but with “a lot of murdered souls, which had served as fodder for the snouts of death.” The sound of bombs, planes taking off and landing, the hum of messages coming in through WhatsApp and Instagram. hashtagsthose labels that reinforce a message, the emoticons from the heart, yellow faces sending kisses, the “I love you, damn it”, “with chilikid, I miss you already”, the songs composed by the lover, that “can you imagine if you gave him follow to my love”…
But the destiny of Romina and Julito is marked “by love and fucking death.” Romina’s father, Don Capu, aspires to marry his daughter to the heir of The Lord of the Mountain and thus consolidate his power. His daughter, a rebel, detests him and dreams of a passionate romance. Julito sneaks into her bedroom even though his beloved’s estate is guarded up to the walls by men armed with their Kalashnikovs and a rabid dog, the Lying downand they consummate their young, intense passion. But everything gets out of control and a war breaks out that ends in bloodshed. Yes, like the ones we see these days in northern Mexico. “#Valioverga”. Or as the eloquent narrator says: “It’s a very good story cholerawhich with chili “it’s not going to end well.”
These are half-hour episodes that captivate from the very first moment. And yes, the listener may be fed up with series, films and books that trivialise or glorify drug trafficking, but in this case they will have an entertaining time thanks to the excellent work done by the narrators: Astrid Mariel, Enid Ayala, Sara Vivanco, Natalia Guadarrama, Germán Sotomayor, Alexis Marsicano, Cesar Ramones, Erik López, Manuel Domínguez, Rafael Blázquez, Carlos Álvarez, Daniel Zazueta, Gaby Betancourt, Joaquín Chable and Alejandra Corman.
And if you don’t know the corridos tumbados, like the person who signs these lines, you might even come to like them. “I find it interesting as a cultural phenomenon,” says Carrillo. “I don’t think that music has to moralize, try to educate, but rather it is a reflection of what is being experienced. And in that sense I think it is a faithful reflection, because many young people experience it that way. And they can even see them as aspirational models, which for us may or may not be good, but for them they are the only alternatives they have to escape the violence in which they live,” he adds.
Carrillo did not want a story that glorified violence, but one that left a message. And the message is tragic for Mexico. This is how he explains it: “What we are trying to do here is tell the other side of the story.” narcoThis version of Romeo and Juliet lends itself to seeing that other side, that there is no way out. In Shakespeare’s original story, the final lesson is that after so much violence and so much cruelty, the families, the Montagues and the Capulets, say ‘we have to stop our chaos, you’ve seen what we caused, our children died’. Here it happens the other way around: not even the death of the children stops it. The cruelty and thirst for power is so great that there is no end to it. And it is hard, but it reflects what is happening. It is a reflection of what Mexico is.”
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