‘No Hay Nada Que Celebrar’: Music, Migration, and Violence in Luis Estrada’s El Infierno (2010)

Abstract

Dramatic interpretations of the drug war in Latin America have within recent years increased in number, particularly with television shows such as the Netflix original series Narcos (2015) and Telemundo’s telenovela La reina del sur (2011). During this decade, one of the more significant cinematic contributions is Luis Estrada’s 2010 film El Infierno, which premiered in a sea of controversy. The film follows the protagonist Benny as he transitions from a recently deported undocumented immigrant to a narco-assassin in northern Mexico. To amplify this transition, El Infierno utilises narcocorridos and música norteña, which are aural signifiers for narcocinema, and border culture. This music highlights Benny’s transformation and accompanies explicit scenes of violence, some examples ripped from the headlines from Mexico’s popular press. These musical moments provide a deeply embedded cultural association to the violence and function as a form of desensitisation as Benny witnesses the cartel’s power spin out of control. I analyse two musical moments that emulate Benny’s experiences, first as a deportee then as an assassin, reinforcing his transition from one forced identity to another while also supplying a darkly satirical yet critical commentary on the harsh realities of Mexico’s drug war.