Cannabis Music in Mexico During the 1910s

Context: Cannabis in Revolution-Era Mexico

By 1910, cannabis (called mariguana or marihuana) had been present in Mexico for centuries, likely introduced by Spanish colonists who cultivated Cannabis sativa for hemp fiber. By the late nineteenth century, smoking cannabis for its psychoactive effects was associated in Mexican newspapers with soldiers, prisoners, and the urban poor, and the plant carried a heavy stigma in elite discourse ^[1][2]. Isaac Campos's Home Grown documents that Mexican authorities and press had already linked marihuana to violence and madness well before U.S. prohibitionists picked up the theme ^[1] Strong evidence.

When the Revolution broke out in 1910, armies on all sides drew heavily from the rural poor and prison populations — precisely the groups most associated in the popular imagination with cannabis use. Whether soldiers actually smoked marihuana in large numbers is harder to establish than the songs suggest Weak / limited.

'La Cucaracha' and Its Marihuana Verse

The single most famous cannabis-referencing song of the era is 'La Cucaracha,' whose best-known verse runs:

> La cucaracha, la cucaracha, / ya no puede caminar / porque no tiene, porque le falta / marihuana que fumar.

('The cockroach can't walk anymore because it has no marihuana to smoke.')

Two important corrections to the popular story:

1. The song is older than the Revolution. 'La Cucaracha' is a Spanish-origin folk song whose melody and structure were documented in Spain in the nineteenth century and possibly earlier. Francisco Rodríguez Marín collected Spanish variants in the 1880s ^[3]. Mexican versions circulated well before 1910.

1. The marihuana verse is one of many. 'La Cucaracha' is a coplas song — an open framework into which singers insert topical verses. Revolution-era Mexicans added stanzas mocking Victoriano Huerta, praising or ridiculing Pancho Villa, and yes, joking about a cockroach who needs cannabis to walk. The marihuana verse is sometimes attributed to Villa's Division del Norte, but there is no firm documentary evidence pinning it to a specific battalion or date Disputed.

What is well documented is that by the 1910s, printed hojas sueltas (broadside song sheets) in Mexico City included marihuana verses of 'La Cucaracha,' and the song spread widely through the Revolution's mobile armies ^[2][4].

Corridos and Other Songs Mentioning Marihuana

The corrido — a narrative ballad tradition — flourished during the Revolution and occasionally referenced marihuana, though less often than modern retellings imply. Vicente T. Mendoza's foundational study El corrido mexicano catalogs revolution-era corridos but shows that marihuana is a minor theme compared to battles, generals, and betrayals ^[4] Strong evidence.

Songs and broadsides from the period that reference cannabis include verses circulated as 'coplas de la mariguana' — short satirical stanzas often about a marihuano (cannabis user) getting into absurd trouble. José Guadalupe Posada, the Mexico City engraver, illustrated broadsides during this era that occasionally depicted marihuana scenes, giving the theme visual as well as musical presence ^[2].

Claims sometimes circulate online that specific well-known corridos like 'La Adelita' or 'La Valentina' contain marihuana verses. These claims are generally not supported by the standard printed versions collected by Mendoza and others No data.

How the Songs Traveled and Shaped Later Myth

Refugees, exiles, and migrant workers carried these songs north during and after the Revolution. By the 1920s and 1930s, 'La Cucaracha' had become internationally famous, recorded by Mexican and U.S. artists and used in Hollywood films. The marihuana verse traveled with it, and for many English-speaking audiences it was their first exposure to the word marihuana ^[5] Strong evidence.

Harry Anslinger and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics later leaned on the association between Mexican migrants, marihuana, and folk culture to build support for the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act. The revolution-era songs, stripped of context, became evidence in a xenophobic argument they were never written to make ^[1][5].

Mexico itself moved to ban cannabis cultivation and sale federally in 1920, before the U.S. did, reflecting domestic anxieties rather than pressure from abroad ^[1] Strong evidence.

What We Actually Know vs. What Gets Repeated

Common claims worth flagging:

• 'Pancho Villa wrote the marihuana verse of La Cucaracha.' No evidence. The verse circulated during the Revolution but is not documented as Villa's composition No data.
• 'Villa's soldiers smoked marihuana to fight.' Some individual soldiers on all sides likely did; there is no reliable evidence of systematic use. Villa himself was famously a teetotaler who banned alcohol in his ranks Weak / limited.
• 'La Cucaracha is a marihuana song.' It's a folk framework that acquired a marihuana verse, among many other verses about politics, love, and food Strong evidence.
• 'The song was banned in Mexico.' No credible primary source supports this No data.

The honest summary: cannabis genuinely entered Mexican popular song in the 1910s, and 'La Cucaracha' is the clearest example. But the specific stories told about who wrote what, and when, are mostly folklore built on top of a real but modest musical footprint.

Sources

How this page was made