In Mexico, the term “hallucination” has become a trend both in social networks and in the media after young men and women began to use it to define their lifestyle, or at least the one they aspire to, one that they seek to imitate. to the drug lords, full of luxuries, excesses and a feeling of power. To do this, they wear expensive clothes, or at least they appear to be, jewelry, and use platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.
A new trend is flooding social networks, with an impact on the media: the so-called “ Alucines ”, young men and women who aspire to the lifestyle that, at least apparently, they maintain the drug lords, and adopt it as part of their identity, which they expose on various digital platforms.
Despite the fact that the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language defines the term to hallucinate, from which the adjective alucin is derived, as a “state of incoherence similar to that produced by drugs”, in Mexico it is being closely related to a new trend, same that emerges from the drug culture, in which its sympathizers and followers adopt behaviors that advocate drug trafficking, and its most representative characters.
Dressed in expensive clothes, or at least they appear to be, as well as jewelry, sunglasses, Walkie-Talkie radios, with a haircut known as a mullet and using a northern accent and slang, “Los Alucines” seek to attract attention to wherever they go, but above all pretend that they belong to the world of drug traffickers, because it is a lifestyle to which they aspire.
Instagram and TikTok are two of the social networks most used by those who are part of this new trend. Through these platforms they can make public the lifestyle they lead, which, in their opinion, gives them recognition from others.
The narcocorridos are another essential element in the identity of “Los Alucines”, particularly the war songs, as they are also called, those that are full of references to organized crime, drugs and murder. While corridos have been part of Mexico’s history for decades, narcocorridos, with an explicit apology for drug trafficking, have increased in popularity more recently. Many times they are usually accompanied by videos in which weapons are graphically displayed, and which, in addition, suggest both attacks and crimes.
According to Dr. Víctor Hernández, Professor-Researcher of Law and National Security at the Universidad Panamericana Law School, “violence as a media phenomenon is very attractive.” In an interview for SinEmbargo, he stressed that these types of events are intrinsically “very striking for human beings.”
But ” Los Alucines” are not only men who aspire to have luxury cars, with expensive clothes, there are also women who identify with this lifestyle, and they see in Sandra Ávila Beltrán, better known as “The Queen of the Pacific”, who was imprisoned for seven years accused of the crime of operations with resources of illicit origin, as a role model.
This attraction to imitate organized crime, according to Dr. Hernández, may respond to the fact that in these cultural expressions, “like other forms of literature, they try to capture stories of building heroes.”
The TikTok user identified as @soytreintoker referred to the Alucines in a video in which she commented that they are young people “who aspire to have the lifestyle of drug traffickers…”, so in the videos and photographs they publish they must, even pretend that they have material goods that in reality they do not have, so the tiktokera considered that the followers of this trend “stand out for the level of lies… the stories they must tell to justify that they do not bring what they say they have or they don’t know what they say they know”, commented the young woman.@soytreintoker #Reply to @yaretrojuche ♬ original sound – Soytreintoker
It is this idealization of the drug trafficker‘s life, at least the one that is exposed in the media, which draws the attention of those who identify themselves as Hallucinations; the luxurious way of life led by those who are part of organized crime, the power they are able to exercise thanks to the money they obtain illegally, as well as the weapons and subordinates who are at their service. A stereotype that, in consideration of Dr. Hernández, at best gives status and recognition to those who sympathize with him, and at worst becomes a speech to attract more members to their organizations.
“There has been the emergence of this whole culture, of this whole series of practices, of narrating from a literary perspective, sometimes even fantastic, how the war against drug trafficking has been fought, sometimes presenting drug traffickers as a kind of anti-hero . You have to be careful because there are various ways of advocating violence; one is to present someone who has dedicated himself to a criminal life with desirable or attractive attributes, but there are also speeches”, highlighted the expert.
“Something that is very interesting sociologically about this recruitment carried out by criminal groups is that they promise, to the young person who enters the ranks, to return something that the State had taken from him, for example, the State does not allow you to take justice into your own hand, you have to go to court to prosecutors’ offices that are inefficient, instead the criminal group gives you the gun and tells you ‘you are the Judge and the executor of all the offenses that have been done to you; the State has taken away your social status, because it keeps you in poverty, here is a salary that is enough for you to have a moderately decent life’, and also this status that you are ‘the bad guy’, ‘the dangerous one on the block’, that It is very interesting, that to the extent that there are these spaces of precariousness and these absences of the State,
This influence of the life of drug traffickers is reflected in the narcocorridos, which add to that idealization, which is very present in the style that the Alucines maintain, since these themes are reflected in their lyrics, and in the videos they make. , the life to which the followers of this new trend aspire.
For the Doctor of Law and National Security, basically, the narcocorridos maintain a discourse similar to that of the Armed Forces, since in both cases force is exalted, and there is “a promise of a status, and in the end the two organizations, by different means, they end up offering you the same thing,” said Hernández, who insisted that such a situation is part of the construction of a person’s identity. “It is very normal for human groups to have this type of phenomenon to build identity,” he reiterated.
An example of how the image of organized crime influences took place on August 23, when elements of the Sinaloa State Preventive Police arrested a musical group in the municipality of Navolato while recording a music video that advocated crime. The arrest took place after local residents reported the presence of armed men on the site.
Cristóbal Castañeda Camarillo, Secretary of State Public Security, reported that upon arrival at the scene, the authorities arrested several people and seized 11 trucks.
“When responding to a report on the presence of armed civilians, elements of the #PEPSinaloa secured 11 vans as well as several people, however, it was a group that recorded a video clip advocating crime, this in Navolato. Railings were sent,” the official reported.
But such a situation has not only been reflected in music videos. In November 2021, the Sinaloa Police arrested 92 people who disguised themselves as drug traffickers and were executed during the Halloween celebration in that entity. Those involved even decorated 23 vehicles with paint that appeared to be blood. In addition, they carried toy weapons that appeared to be real high-caliber weapons and put dolls characterized by murdered people on the awnings of the vehicles, and thus they toured several streets in Sinaloa territory.
In both cases, the authorities intervened, arguing that crime was being defended; however, Dr. Hernández considered that censoring some forms of expression is not the way to keep citizens away from violence or to combat crime. organized crime. “It’s not that homicides are going to go down or robberies are going to go down just because there is censorship of certain forms of cultural expression,” he said.
“Furthermore, to a great extent these forms of cultural expression have developed on the periphery, the narcocorridos are not composed at the Institute of Fine Arts, they have no place in the institutional world and therefore tend to develop on the periphery, the city itself. aesthetics of criminal organizations, their logos, their nicknames, all of this usually happens outside institutional contexts, and normally when you censor a phenomenon, the only thing you are going to achieve is to radicalize it,” he explained.
In the words of the expert, one of the ways to dispel the expectations that some sectors of the population have about drug trafficking, and with it, that many people consider joining the ranks of organized crime, is by recovering spaces that have been “appropriated.” crime”. How? Improving the quality of life of Mexicans.
“The State cannot compete with drug traffickers, in the sense that it cannot offer a life of show business, the popular image of the hitman is of the ‘bad guy’ who brings his gun, who has his car, who has many partners, the State cannot offer you that, we know that this is not the case, the State cannot offer you an intense life, but instead what it should offer you, as it happens in Holland, it happens in Norway, in Sweden, it should offer you a quiet life,” he said.
“Why the narco or why populism could not flourish in the Scandinavian countries, in Sweden, in Norway, in Finland, because you were born there and you already have everything safe, you have an education up to the postdoctoral degree if you want, you have health, and you pay a lot of taxes, but what comes from salary, that is for you, it is for you to dedicate yourself to traveling, to having a quiet life, and it is not that everyone in Norway has a yacht, it is not that everyone is a millionaire, but yes they have solved with dignity that standard of basic services, in that the State can compete”, he added.
Likewise, he urged to rethink what is happening in the Mexican educational system, since, he said, Mexican education is designed only for schooling, “you have already passed this grade, you already have this role”, but life skills are not learned , virtues are not learned, character is not exercised, it is an education that is designed to produce workers, not to produce citizens or full people”, he concluded.
Source: riodice, simembargo
