Formal Analysis of "La Reyna del Inframundo"
Formal Analysis of “La Reyna del Inframundo” The notorious drug war and wanton violence is taking over Mexico. The government and police seem to have no control over the situation as the drug cartels have the most power out of anyone in the country. However, there are a few who attempt to denounce the violence of the drug cartels that spreads across the country like a bloody wildfire through poetry, music, and painting. Javier Sicilia, a poet, denounces the drug violence that killed his son through his last poem and Marcos Castro painted a picture of the destruction of the Mexican culture and people, influenced by the lyrics from singer Lila Downs, who sang about death because of the drug trade in Mexico. Marcos Castro’s “La Reyna del Inframundo”, taken directly from Lila Downs’s lyrics, illustrates the control of violence over Mexico and its culture through the contrast between light and dark, referencing the battle between destruction and hope, shape, the spiral in the middle of the painting suggests a tornado of extermination, and scale and position of objects, namely the gun which exemplifies the emphasis on violence and death. In “La Reyna del Inframundo”, the contrast between light and dark in the darkness demonstrates the battle between destruction and hope. Based on the background of the image, we can infer that the darkness and violence in the image is a reference to the carnage of these drug cartels that instill fear in the Mexican people from their ruthless tactics to establish their dominance. Due to the smoke that comes from the flames at the bottom of the painting, the presence of darkness is prevalent across the painting. There are even strands of black lines within the flames themselves, making the flames appear destructive rather than a productive fire that would be used for food or safety. This destructive tone of the flames is compounded by the people who are being consumed by the fires, alluding to the fact that the drug cartel violence in