Enigma Norteño has lost its lead singer.
Ernesto Barajas was shot dead on Aug. 19 at a parking lot in Zapopan, a city located in Jalisco, Mexico, the state prosecutor’s office confirmed to Associated Press. He was 38.
Two men riding a motorcycle approached Barajas and opened fire, local authorities told CBS News. In addition to the musician, one man was killed and a woman was injured in the attack, per police.
In the wake of his passing, Barajas’ management company shared in an Aug. 20 statement on Instagram Stories, “Rest in peace.”
“Your Talento Linder family will always be proud of you and remember you as the great artist and human being that you were,” the organization added. “May God bless you.”
Enigma Norteño was founded in 2004, rising to prominence as part of the “narcocorrido” subgenre of music centered around songs about real-life drug traffickers and cartel members.
“It can be dangerous to release a corrido without authorization,” Barajas told Independent en Español in 2022, “since you could be revealing a lot of information about the character, and the authorities would be using those details as ‘clues’ to arrest them.”
He continued, “The best thing is to speak the truth. Perhaps that’s why I’ve never had any problems. Ideally, as long as you behave respectfully and don’t offend other sides, you can compose the corrido.”
And sometimes, songs can be commissioned. As Barajas noted to the Spanish-language outlet at the time, “I charge $25,000 per ‘narcocorrido.'”
“Occasionally, they call me and request a corrido,” he shared without revealing his clients’ identities. “Maybe they personally won’t come because they’re bosses and don’t have the time to come to you and say, ‘I want you to make a corrido for me and talk about this,’ but they assign someone to do that task.”
However, Barajas insisted that his songs do not glorify criminal activities.
“If you, as a young person, listen to ‘narcocorridos’ and grow up in that circle, sooner or later you’ll want to imitate that pattern,” he said. “We try to be very careful about what we say and not set a bad example. We’re very careful about that aspect.”
