A Culichi Guide To Narco Spanish
My Christmas shout to subscribers
Back in 2008, when a previous Sinaloa Cartel civil war broke out, between El Chapo and “The Beard” Beltrán Leyva, foreign TV crews flooded into state-capital Culiacán in northwest Mexico. Amid the sight of hardened war correspondents who had just been in Iraq and Afghanistan, a local cartoonist, El Paquiro, wrote a guide to narco Spanish - or “Culichi-Ingles Para Corresponsales De Guerra,” as he called it.
The hilarious comic strip was printed in cult magazine “La Locha” and has definitions such as:
“Ejecutado - The final outcome of the express method of judging and sentencing a member of the rival cartel.”
“Sicario - A very elegant way to call a ‘killer for hire’ ”
And the clasic,
“Cartel - A big family.”
My copy of La Locha is one my most treasured keepsakes from two decades of covering Mexico and the drug wars. Here is page one of the guide below:
An interesting point looking back was how many TV crews came to film the bloodbath in Culiacán then. The 2008 cartel war kicked off in Sinaloa in May with the shooting of El Chapo’s son Edgar and by the summer I had worked on 30-minute documentary for Channel 4 of the UK, a special for Al Jazaeera, a segment for German TV and two Time Magazine features. By September, I was turning down requests from Fox and ABC.
Fast forward to this year, and the cartel war in Sinaloa is bigger and more brutal. Yet there is less coverage. A handful of reporters based in Mexico have gone up, but there isn’t the same flurry of TV crews flying in from war zones.
I think there are three reasons for the difference in coverage. There are now more conventional wars (or bloodbaths) in Ukraine and Gaza that you didn’t have in 2008 that are big news. Mexican cartel violence on its real paramilitary scale was fairly novel then. And while we are indundated today with media production, there are less resources available for journalists to actually report stories.
On CrashOut, I’m trying to build a team to bring as strong alternative as I can to these gaps in coverage, so we can keep informed on these key issues. This guerrilla doc here that I produced with Omid Visua and Fidel Durán on the new Sinaloa Civil War, aims to be the first of many. And while thousands of you read the stories here, the videos can potentially reach millions.
It’s been a hell of a year on CrashOut; at the beginning I didn’t know if this would be a viable project but the growth has shown it most certainly is. Yet it is still that hard core crew of paid subscribers who make it happen, so if you like this, why not dive in now and click the link to become a CrashOut member for less than the price of your capuccino this morning. And damn, it’s Christmas so get one for that friend who really needs to be informed about the narco wars! BOOOM.
Narco News
In developing stories over the last week:
Dámaso López Serrano, alias El Mini Lic, is the narco who self-surrendered at the U.S. border in 2017, and became a high-profile cooperator. CrashOut published an interview he gave to journo and friend Luis Chaparro last year, here. On Friday, the FBI re-arrested Dámaso in Virginia for allegedly still trafficking fentanyl. Chaparro also broke the story of the arrest. It raises big questions about “America’s narco snitch system,” which I wrote about here.
Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, the former head of the Gulf Cartel, and one of the founders of the Zetas paramilitary wing, was deported to Mexico after serving 17 years in U.S. prisons. Despite alarm that he would be back sowing terror south of the border, he was taken to Mexico’s top security prison to face charges.
CrashOut Subscribers Work
Among the great work produced by CrashOut subscribers, we have:
Monochrome Contrasts - Beautiful black and white photography by Tom Johnston, here.
The Detective Emilia Cruz series of thrillers by Carmen Amato, here.
The Mexpatriate Substack by former chief news editor of the Mexico News Daily, Kathleen Bohne, now based in San Miguel de Allende, here.
(Any paid subscribers who want to cite their work in the quarterly shout, please shoot a mail to ioangrillo@hotmail.com).
Other Shouts
A big thanks to all who have contributed work to CrashOut in 2024, including Juan Alberto Cedillo, Christian Cipollini, Benjamin T. Smith, Servando Mellin, Javier Verdin, Ieva Jusionyte, Teun Voeten, Max van der Graaf, Omid Visua, John Dickie and Fidel Durán.
Also, the comments section has been buzzing away and hitting over sixty entries on stories. There are many fascinating insights I learn from. Thanks especially to: Jonathan Ramos, Tom Johnson, Daniel Helkenn, Stevie Abbott, Joe Schmoo, DC Reade, Lee HammMX, Mike Hampton, Michael E. Perez, Percy Menzies, Mar a Man, Lukas Nel, Mica Treveño, David Cashion, Iain, John Moody, Steven, Alberto Perez C, Carlos Maza, John Farra, Fredy Alvarez, Stephen Duncan, and every other one of you who has chipped in and sorry I didn’t mention.
I’ll still be filing reports over the Christmas and new year weeks, so you can read reportage between days of turkey and mince pies, or bacalao and romeritos. But I wanted to get in early with a feliz navidad, Happy Crimbo, and merry Fiesta Lupe Reyes. And I look forward to more and bigger coverage in 2025. It’s going to be a crazy one.
I’ll leave you now with two short video clips from Mexico City’s “Grupo Help,” who I happened to see at a party on Sunday and they made me smile. They are a sought-after Beatles cover band who do a cracking set. The Paul character even plays the bass left-handed and does a passable Liverpool accent.
Let me know if you prefer the rock and roll phase or the psycadelic phase. I’m firmly in the psychadelic camp.
Top photos by Ioan Grillo of cartoons by El Paquiro in La Locha. Middle photo of Osiel Cárdenas by U.S. Justice. Bottom video clips of Grupo Help by Ioan Grillo.
Copyright Ioan Grillo and CrashOut Media 2024
Finishing a great year of your work. It’s the best value on Substack for sure. It’s like having an “action movie” channel for the simple cost of a subscription. Plus you direct the readers to a lot of other great content. Well done.
I go rock and roll on your vids. Still remember as a kid seeing The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. That changed everything.
Thank you very much for the shoutout and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. And let me be sacrilegious and tell you I was never a Beatles fan nor ever purchased a Beatles record. Hardcore rocker then and even more so now. But I have to admit, not too many death metal fans at 74 years old. But what the hell, if I am ever placed in rest home against my will, I will tear down those walls with Cannibal Corpse.