The Los Angeles Times reports the members of Los Tigres, who live in Los Angeles, had already made the trip to Mexico for the Las Lunas award ceremony at Mexico City’s National Auditorium when they were informed they would not be able to play “La Granja.”

The members of Los Tigres – who, according to the Times, are regarded as the first Mexican band to make narcocorridos acceptable as popular music in the ’70s – steadfastly defend the songs, asserting they merely document the lives of the people of Mexico.

Narcocorridos are Spanish ballads that detail the exploits of drug traffickers and criminals and are a source of controversy in Mexico, where some believe they romanticize the drug trade and encourage young people to get involved.

Band leader Jorge Hernandez told the Times “La Granja” is a fable.

“The song speaks of all the problems in Mexico, through a fable with little animals,” he explained. “We wanted to deal with the problems our government has – narcotics trafficking, the violence, what we already know about and live. There is nothing to offend anyone, it is simply a representation of what is happening to us.”

According to the Times, “La Granja” and its video portray politicians as pigs getting wealthy off the backs of the citizens, drug trafficking as a ferocious, red-eyed dog and former Mexican President Vicente Fox as a zorro (fox) that releases the dog. The dog then terrorizes farmers, who now are unable to grow their crops (a reference to their “marijuana and poppy fields”) and can’t escape because of a fence (a reference to the wall erected on the U.S. border).

Although Los Tigres was set to receive an award as well as perform, the band’s members said it was too late even after organizers relented and said they could sing whatever they chose.