How a Mexican Music Video Is Adding to the Debate Against Violence in Women in That Country

As production values go, “Fuiste Mia” (“You Were Mine”) by Mexican-American singer Gerardo Ortiz is pretty polished. It’s the subject matter–femicide, the killing of women–that is of concern. One stat says that 47% of all women in the country have been subject to some sort of sexual violence. This video is loaded with that.

Ortiz also likes to sing narcocorridos, tales of drug runners and dealers, the sort of people responsible for thousands of deaths in Mexico over the last decade. Rather than condemn their actions, narco ballads often sympathize with or romanticize the villains and their deeds, which explains why singing or playing narcocorridos are banned in many parts of Mexico.  They’re considered too dangerous and too inflammatory.

“Fuista Mia” tickets both of these boxes–and the outrage is spreading.

I went looking for the video to put everything in context, but Vevo–the music industry’s official YouTube channel–has taken it down despite 25 million views.

But this being the Internet, you can almost always find what you’re looking for.

See what I mean? Stuffing someone in a trunk and then setting the car on fire is something narcos like to do. The fact that the woman in this video is sexually assaulted and then jammed in the trunk while still in her lingerie is…well, you can understand the anger.

And it gets better. Authorities in the western state of Jalisco (the state with the second-worst level of femicide in the country) noticed something familiar about the house in the video. Turns out they had raided the place years ago, seizing six AK-47s and–wait for it–a grenade launcher. They would like to talk to Ortiz about how he came to know about this particular house and why it was the setting for “Fuista Mia.”

The outcry got so bad that Ortiz held a press conference, but this has done little to calm the backlash. Read more on the story here.