‘El narco está de moda’: Corporeality, Gender Violence and Narcoculture in Culiacán, Sinaloa

Abstract

This article considers how the figure of the buchona can be seen as another form of victimization for women in north-western Mexico. It focuses on previous representations of gender violence by the photographer Mayra Martell in her photography series Ensayo de la Identidad (2005–2020) and her more recent project Buchonas (2017–2023), composed of six items, including the photography book Culichi Town (2018) and the playing/ collectors’ cards, Plebes (2019). This article argues that visible femininity associated with certain (often prosthetic) beauty standards can be considered a victim of a hyperviolent machista presence, in line with Sayak Valencia’s theorizations in Capitalismo Gore (2018), using the work of comedian Cid Vela’s alter ego, El Ezequiel, singer of ‘narcocorridos’ – ballads popular in Mexican drug culture – to demonstrate how, rather than use satire to critique systemic gender violence, Vela’s work revictimizes these women.