In Ciudad Juarez, Mexico’s deadliest city, where the drug war has been exacerbated by a well-documented (and still unsolved) wave of violence directed against women, a growing number of young people are using music as a platform to raise their voice against the culture of violence, fear and apparent impunity enjoyed by the drug cartels and those shadowy criminals responsible for the wave of femicides.

An influx of Mexican immigrants in recent years has swelled Texas’ Hispanic population by a third and, in the process, changed the Lone Star State’s musical tastes, supplanting Tejano with Norteño–a regional Mexican genre with modern lyrics and a younger fan base. That demographic shift has prompted music industry impresarios to buy up radio stations to cater to the swelling ranks of Norteño fans as the Tejano fan base has dwindled.