Challenges of the Researcher Based on Fieldwork About ‘Buchonas’

Abstract

This article aims to reflect on the digital ethnography (cyberethnography or netnography) and visual ethnography (using images and videos) focused on the figure of the buchona, which is situated within the context of the narcoculture in northern Mexico. The approach begins with a general description of what is understood by narcoculture and its relationship with social networks; it addresses the representation of the buchona (a narcotrafficker’s girlfriend) within the dynamics of Instagram. This article highlights the challenge of observing research subjects (buchonas) associated with violent and dangerous environments (narcotrafficking), which requires alternative strategies that ensure the researcher’s safety while maintaining an ethical and rigorous perspective in interpreting empirical data as a phenomenological exercise. The discussion is framed by two main points: on one hand, netnography is considered a useful and necessary method since the scenarios being observed take place on Instagram (posts). As a result, this social network is embedded within the prevailing needs of the new youth in Mexico and the world, where visual content is central to its importance and impact. On the other hand, this article uncovers opportunities linked to the data collection and interpretation process, as a methodological challenge within cities facing security issues.

1. Introduction

Narcoculture is a social construction that links various elements, such as practices and signs; its examination is an emerging task due to its glocalization, framed within the immediacy of the scenario of socio-digital networks. The term typically refers to how a business adapts to the culture of a country; however, in this case, it is the business or organization itself (illegal in nature) that gives rise to new cultural practices.

To understand narcoculture in Mexico, it is necessary to understand drug trafficking as an illicit but profitable industry, primarily aimed at distributing drugs to the United States. The success of smuggling illegal substances into the United States or any other country represents just one part of this industry’s mechanism, known as money laundering—a process that involves the transnationalization of its operations, turning this strategy into a criminal economy.

Drug trafficking has been inserted as a “viable” but illegal economy that restricts traditional forms of administration, preventing them from saving and investing, even denying them the possibility of legitimate ownership of the properties they accumulate, leading traffickers to use frontmen. Consequently, the primary axis from which their practices derive stems from money. In the face of the impossibility of accumulating assets, the key characteristics that shape narcoculture emerge: a particular emphasis on exaltation and wastefulness, extravagant spending, and a fascination with material possessions. In fewer words, its origin is a sort of spiral that begins with the allure of money and everything it can buy.

Today’s mainstream culture reflects how drug trafficking practices are in a stage that rejects anonymity. Narcoculture proves its emergence and the need to be public by following its backbone, exaltation, while simultaneously pursuing two courses: wastefulness through money and power through violence. Buchonas, on one hand, rise as the beauty within that brutal and dark world, representing the glamor and sexualization of their bodies under a kitsch aesthetic, understood to highlight details, which contributes to a false and pre-constructed image, cheap and in bad taste, which, in the current passage, is redefined through social networks as a transmitter of messages.

On the other hand, a new discourse is constructed, rejecting the idea of the trophy woman as an ornament of admiration and desire, instead demanding a prominent role in the decision-making regarding their bodies and recognition within the dominant structure.

The academic effort in researching topics related to drug trafficking is extensive, but it is also limited to contexts that offer safety for those involved. As a result, representations are often drawn from media, music, and the devastations of the capitalist system. Certainly, it is an almost mythological field (Astorga 1995), where while a machine swallows and vomits victims (Reguillo 2021), the glorification of consumption and the exaltation of power is constantly questioned, exposing a break with the official discourse (Valenzuela 2002).

Today, buchona or buchon refers to someone who sympathizes with the tastes and lifestyle of drug traffickers. In Mexico, buchonas are women with distinctive bodies, as well as a particular lifestyle and aspirations, associated with kitsch aesthetics—considered as something in poor taste or a bad copy, not genuine. The term is also often used pejoratively. Buchonas refer to a set of social productions stemming from their bodies as part of their identity construction.

A buchona (female) or buchon (male) refers to a person who has or follows tastes derived from the culture that is part of the practices of drug trafficking. The term is commonly expressed to women who like to get involved romantically with members of drug trafficking organizations (DTOs). The main characteristics of a buchona are found in achieving a stereotype of the specific female body. The hourglass-shaped body of the North American celebrity Kim Kardashian has served as a mold to exalt a stereotype of beauty.

The kitsch aesthetic with which buchonas are identified focuses on the exaggeration of curves, for example a much smaller waist than of average women, which stands out with large hips, as well as big buttocks and breasts. Long straight or wavy hair, at waist height, in combination with large false eyelashes to highlight the eyes and bold smoky eyes makeup. Instead of the lashes going from shorter to longer like traditional styles, they are staggered with shorter lashes in between long lashes to create a wispy effect. As for clothing, these women usually dress in fashion, with the most recent, innovative, and expensive accessories. The preferred brands for this style are Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Versace, Yves Saint Laurent, among many others.

Although there are many characteristics that identify them, the social imaginary of buchonas is still under construction, from music videos (Mexican and Latino telenovela) and more recently from social networks such as Instagram, with images and references to dangerous and powerful women capable of anything.

In Mexico, being buchona can be understood as a cultural expression that has a symbolic dimension of life, establishing subjectivities under specific practices that tie to social order of power relations (Foucault 2000; Agamben 2011).

The advent of the Internet into people’s lives implies a paradigm shift in communication. The number of social media users in 2024 reached just over 62 percent of the world’s total population, meaning that more than half of the people in the world use some social network (Datareportal 2024). The exponential figure of nearly five billion accounts is also shared by the site Statista, which locates a breakdown of 1.4 billion belonging to Instagram alone and the number is constantly increasing. However, it is possible that the quantity of users is not the most important factor, but rather the usage and time spent by the users. This combination provides the fuel that permeates messages and signs to a significant number of young people in Mexico. On one hand, drug trafficking remains a prominent illicit activity in media and everyday discourse within Mexican families. On the other hand, social networks serve as a vehicle for spreading news and unlimited content, which is viewed indiscriminately by young people through social networks, mainly during the 6.3 to 8.5 h that various studies reveal are spent daily on average by a young Mexican (Datareportal 2024).

This article shares a preview of hard data from broader research of some results from the digital ethnographic review of the profiles of three users who, according to control data, can be inferred to be buchonous women. This study initially proposed fieldwork based on in-depth interviews; however, because the approach to the subjects was complex, it was complemented with netnographic observation, an alternative for similar studies.

Fieldwork underwent changes throughout the process. First, the review and observation began by contemplating the profiles of 10 women on Instagram, some of them celebrities in their places of origin. The selection of the sample considered the review and analysis of 10 profiles on Instagram and, subsequently, the request to be interviewed face to face, but during the process of approaching and planning the interviews, the sample was readjusted to a smaller group, mainly for two reasons. The first is due to the references in the publications, that is, the speeches and behaviors in their profiles gave precision to determine if they were truly buchonas; secondly, more than half declined to be interviewed or did not pay attention. In the previous process, there were only three women who agreed to answer some questions anonymously. It is important to mention that the adjective buchona is a pejorative qualifying adjective that a person avoids, since it is related to drug traffickers and “naco”, a Spanish word hard to translate, that could be tacky.

Fieldwork that relates issues of violence and that mainly involves drug trafficking in Mexico considerably increases the risk for the researcher. A small sample reduces the risk for the author and seeks to represent a larger universe that currently involves a series of practices and rituals within narcoculture.

The turning point in this type of approach is the difficulty of interviewing companions, friends, or girlfriends of members of criminal groups. The greatest contribution lies in combining efforts to observe phenomena that pose a risk to the researcher, given the urgency of understanding and reflecting on the scenarios in which these increasing practices take place.

The relevance of topics related to organized crime, due to the exponential growth of violence and crime in the last two decades, is greater than ever. However, the associated insecurity and the real possibilities of success for researchers of these areas are limited, which fosters an open discussion on methodological and ethical rigor, concerning issues with sociological and anthropological perspectives.

The main objective of this article is to contribute to the progressive topic of narcoculture from a scenario that disrupts the lives of some young women in northern Mexico, prioritizing the qualitative method, through netnography and in-depth interviews, as ideal interpretative tools to understand the cultural practices of buchonas in the virtual universe. It is an effort that, in the task of reviewing and understanding the phenomenon, seeks to adopt the strategy that best allows the collection of data while maintaining security for the researcher. The above leads us to consider the following research question: how can researchers address the contradictions posed by the need to trust sources that may not be completely reliable or that are influenced by their context?

2. Theoretical Methodological Framework

The complexity of social phenomena today and their constant evolution, driven by the adaptation of new technologies to people’s lives, underscores the importance of qualitative approaches in the social field. (Tarrés 2001). The loss of state authority is inversely proportional to the power and dominance gained by organized crime groups in Mexico, framed in a deep crisis derived from an economic model that currently offers a polarized landscape of marginality and economic inequality.

Manuel Castells, in his book The Information Age (Castells 1996, p. 7), warned that the changes brought by the Internet would be spectacular. Additionally, gender relations have become a contested domain rather than a source of cultural reproduction. Practices from social networks are on the rise, trending in today’s jargon, and transcending into aspirational as an alternative for young people’s success.

Several researchers have made approaches to the Mexico violence crisis, which allows us to reflect on the challenges that academic research implies in some phenomena. The book Necromáquina, in the words of the author, “Is an effort to analyze and narrate the discomforts, horrors and symptoms of a time of collapse in the civilizational paradigm of modernity” (Reguillo 2021, p. 14). Part of the reflection narrates the transition from biopower to necropower, which infers how the Mexican State has arrived at the current situation, where a decomposition state prevails as a device of death. Reguillo takes a broad view, thanks to the application of various research techniques; she is even one of the pioneers in the use of netnography in the social sciences in Mexico.

From other review axes, for example, music is probably found most frequently; the book Corridos Tumbados by José Manuel Valenzuela (2023) analyzes the contexts of current music and the social influence exerted by narcoculture as an essential reference in the construction of identity. The perspective from music is a subject inherent to narcoculture; Ramírez-Pimienta (2021) states that the corrido (traditional north Mexican music) is a thing for young people. The author assures that the more drug trafficking practices exist in Mexico, the more music that relates lyrics to the feats of drug traffickers can be heard as a fashion.

Although Ramírez Pimienta considers that narcoculture (musical perspective) began in the 1930s, during the morphine trade, in my fieldwork, I find that narcoculture has been linked to an economic axis since its beginnings. Consumption habits are linked to the ability to earn profits, and the aspirational essence consequently exacerbates spending. Certainly, music has been the vehicle that is globalizing narcoculture and now, social networks are the feedback platform.

Although the strongest pillar of narcoculture is undoubtedly music, it should not be considered the only axis on which the reproduction of certain practices depends. To be considered culture, it must include various axes that involve uses and customs; for example, beauty as capital, among the consumption preferences of drug traffickers, offers another angle of approach.

According to Manuel Castells (1996), there is a new paradigm where information is the raw material, where society has its beginnings in the culture of the image. This society has a fundamental element in its social organization represented by virtual networks and communities, and it is not a place, but a process, like a new well-organized industrial space with information flows that mark different territories. This organization presents similarities with certain groups, where they are absorbed or excluded. Now, social networks bring new social structures that have changed the rules, and we are forced to learn them again.

It is imperative to think that the author speaks of a weakening of the welfare state because of the globalization processes at the end of the last century, which created extreme social inequality. Now, there are information codes based on images representing identities, for example, the case of buchonas, as an aspirational archetype from which some women make their lives and behaviors. It is precisely in that space where these codes occur that netnography focuses, since it is a native and functional tool to observe and move in these environments. An interpretative work is attempted based on the observation of the aforementioned information flows. What for Clifford Geertz (1991) was to rescue what was said from fresh social discourse, is now looking for new instant forms from Instagram.

The goal is to unravel the meanings that subjects give to their practices from their fields of meaning. The scenarios have changed to digital passages, hence the need to update the “tool”, although the dense description remains: an interpretive work that allows us to understand the meanings in these digital worlds. It is essential to consider that netnography is a research method that is in a process of theoretical and methodological reformulation, which constitutes a specific application related to experiences on the Internet.

The problematization of the topics surrounding the research subjects is linked to male domination, which, through the lens of Pierre Bourdieu (1987), offers reflection on how some connections are formed, where the habitus reproduces roles of the dominated and dominators. The body plays a significant role in the gender order, where male domination should be thought of as a structuring order present in most everyday practices and that generates symbolic violence.

For Georg Simmel (1988), feminine culture is characterized by an ‘alienation’, as the dominant culture was created by men, leaving art and industry as a masculine result. The obligation to conform to these collective mandates and abide by these invisible norms pushes what Simmel considers the absence of freedom. Added to this scenario are the dynamics of the elements that characterize large cities today, which demand visual and auditory stimuli, where chaos, inequality, and consumption are the common denominators. Fashion then takes on significant weight from the perspective proposed, which has a catalyzing effect that can unite and differentiate, as fashion is considered a form of social relationship that intensifies in modernity.

The body of the buchonas, viewed as something malleable and at the service of men, functions as capital. The review of the elements that make up buchona femininity, from their Instagram profiles, intends to reflect on the three forms of capital proposed by Bourdieu (2000).

Another pertinent issue is the practices derived from drug trafficking organizations. For example, narcoculture is greatly strengthened by mass media productions, but it also has an impact on the architecture and economy of Mexico. Practices that three decades ago were particular to some territories in Mexico, today have spread throughout the country. Narcoculture and its practices are beginning to have a presence in countries such as Spain, Colombia, Central America, and the United States, each with diverse appropriations. The crimes stemming from organized crime encompass a broad spectrum, ranging from human trafficking, migrant smuggling, kidnappings, extortions, drug trafficking, arms trafficking, prostitution, contract killing, money laundering, and oil theft, among others. The numerous social phenomena left with indelible marks by commission of these crimes represent an unfinished task for justice institutions and an unresolved academic challenge, “That is, the constant examination and reformulation of practices and conventions that, in light of new logics of life in the social fabric, alter the traditional theoretical-methodological frameworks of academic communities” (Salazar and Chacón 2020, p. 29).

The fieldwork underlying this article arises from the complexity of successfully approaching research subjects (buchona women). The possibility of questioning the research subjects represents the most complex challenge to begin fieldwork. These women are close to members of criminal groups; in most cases, they are lovers of mafia bosses. The closer the buchonas are to the bosses, the more successful they are considered, and the risk for the researcher also increases. After the first strategy to approach the research subjects was unsuccessful, the observation allowed to understand the difficulty in approaching it successfully. Their friends’ circles are closed. The spaces where they are regularly found are in fashionable places, where they are defined by their symbolic capital, and in the native territories of their generation (social networks), spaces with both an ethological and political meaning, where Instagram develops as an ideal environment for their aspirations.

Netnographic work can represent a suitable alternative to observe subjects native to Internet vehicles, such as social networks. Replacing face-to-face fieldwork with netnography can contribute to understanding the contradictions posed by the need to trust sources that may not be completely reliable—due to their context—and that may be risky for the researcher. However, arguably one of the biggest challenges with this tool is how to conduct ethical research. This underlines the need to employ “virtual ethnography” or “netnography”, a method that specifically considers their territories, their positions as settings, and their interactions as passages of their lives in confrontation with the world (Toledano 2017).

Although netnography is a method developed for the investigation of virtual spaces, it is a relatively new method, expanding and constantly undergoing theoretical and methodological reformulation, which currently presents important challenges that the researcher must be aware of to carry out ethical research (Kulavuz-Onal 2015).

Although netnography, according to (Kozinets 2010), has the ability to interact with large amounts of information (big data), derived from technology, globalization, and transmission of popular data on the Internet, in the case of this research, it is an emerging culture around particular practices, but the subjects of study are not established in a group and only a few can be verifiable.

The first change that the researcher must adapt to is to take observation to a digital space, flat in principle, but at the same time, deep and amazing. Beyond what theorists indicate, these spaces are digitally natural. Then, the observation takes on another dimension. It is necessary for the researcher to know and be familiar with the contents and types of online interactions of the subjects and their environments (Kozinets 2010). The language is essential to understand and achieve a complete interpretation. On the one hand, the importance of detailed observation is guaranteed since the spaces are open, in most cases, Instagram. However, it must be considered that netnography is selected to find information beyond personal concepts (Kozinets 2010). It is about moods and particularly perfect moments, which most people look for.

A challenge is to preserve the rigor of those models used by Bronislaw Malinowski, which sought to carry out systematic fieldwork to establish the function of practices and notions of social life; where the presence of the researcher was central, in the digital sphere, this presence disappears, or at least that is how it feels. Then, fieldwork recognized the internal logic of a space and a group as an integrated autonomous totality (Guber 2004), Netnography is the continued work of the researcher in virtual scenarios where practices are developed by the analysis subjects of specific dynamics.

Marshall McLuhan’s prophetic phrase, which says “the medium is the message”, helps us understand and reflect on the current nature of socio-digital networks (McLuhan 2009). Although each network targets a different market niche, they all share the code of distributing messages, ultimately creating a universe-like entity, a company called Meta, which aims to merge two worlds, the real with the digital.

In summary, it is pertinent to consider that technology has created a parallel digital reality that affects the world we live in. It is necessary to understand that this alternate digital reality is driven by messages and the contents that flood social networks daily. This represents a technological ecology that fosters a new form of communication. Just as television was indoctrinating in the last century, the Internet, through Web 2.0, has created an environment where reality concerning life is impacted by digital reality and what happens there. The idea originally proposed as a global village has turned into a metropolis, a far-reaching metaphor that spreads, gains, and expands territory worldwide. “In a world of global flows of wealth, power, and images, the search for identity, collective or individual, attributed or constructed, becomes the fundamental source of social meaning” (Castells 1996, p. 7). Societies seem to order and regroup according to the duality exposed by technology, between the network and the self.

The current and most common vehicles of the Internet today are social networks. These communication tools and platforms for sharing photographs, with their massive interactivity, promote a cult of aesthetic individualism, understood as a cultural dimension based on the creation of content. It is an ecosystem created by “prosumers” that weaves a network motivated by the fascination of a luxury lifestyle, where an example is the buchona as a social expression, in which following specific models can change their lives. The exaltation of beauty through women who identify as buchonas on Instagram focuses on one of the characteristics that stereotype narcoculture, which involves the squandering of money and the frivolization of life. Thus, from their online identities, they aim to accumulate events and anecdotes to project a life of celebrity.

3. Adjustments and Sample Selection

This article discusses the turning points during the planning and execution of the digital ethnographic review of the profiles of three users who, based on three control data points, can be inferred to be buchonas. Regarding in-depth interviews, this article provides a description of the approach to the research subjects and details the challenges and opportunities presented by research of this nature.

In social sciences, fieldwork involving vulnerable people (victims) or those connected to organized crime due to their work or proximity frequently requires strategies to ensure the feasibility and completion of the research, always minimizing risks for both the research subjects and the researcher.

The control data referred to for the netnographic review aim to ensure that the selected profiles represent the ideal participants according to the established objectives. The following points were considered for selecting profiles to analyze. First, the account verification must include the blue badge next to the account name or pseudonym. This badge informs users and followers that the account is genuine and managed by the mentioned individual. The account must meet several criteria to be considered authentic, such as being public, unique, having a biography or basic identification data, and being notable for the number of its followers.

The second criterion considered was parity, meaning the user or account owner must have other social networks that match their Instagram posts. The intention is to reinforce the certainty that the person is authentic and that their posts make sense across different platforms. The third criterion was the number of followers. Profiles with no fewer than 100,000 followers were considered. The profiles reviewed are identified as content creators, brand ambassadors, models, and/or influencers. It is important to note that none publicly identify as buchonas; the label persists based on their physical appearance, how they dress, the trends they follow, the type of messages they share, and other elements that will be described later.

The profile review included up to fifty posts from each account, analyzing themes such as body aesthetics, fashion use, and the presence of narcoculture elements, such as religious figures, weapons, and money. The locations and settings of their posts were also considered. Although images are the central pillar of the analysis, the titles and expressions in their posts, as well as follower comments, were also reviewed as part of the observation. The aim is to reflect on the narrative conveyed by buchonas in the digital environment, to understand and interpret how they project their lives on Instagram.

For the interviews, a semi-structured questionnaire was drafted, covering four variables (body, beauty, surgeries, and social networks) to facilitate a fluid conversation between the researcher and the interviewee. The following sections will provide a detailed account of the encounters and execution of the interviews.

4. Bioethical Orientation

The possibility of conducting scientific social research may be compromised by the current security climate. Adjustments and methodological planning must first consider the real scope proposed and then establish boundaries. Before the federal elections (2 June 2024) to elect the president, deputies, and senators in Mexico, 37 candidates from different political parties were assassinated, which highlights the current security situation.

For fieldwork, four ethical principles formulated by Robert Hall were considered. These principles outline a flexible path based on scientific rigor and empirical research processes that can be adapted to contexts to preserve cultural significance within the social sciences (Hall 2017).

This section’s title reflects the need to rethink how to apply these principles in insecure contexts. These universal ethical requirements promote the protection of human participants. This task presents challenges for the researcher in relation to methodological processes, as there are no books or guides on how to explore topics under these conditions, much less ethical manuals for approaching and dealing with specific social subjects. Therefore, the challenge lies both in the methodology and in the application of these bioethical criteria to achieve the desired methodological rigor.

Informed consent is the starting point and, at the same time, the first challenge when it comes to engaging with dangerous subjects or those associated with criminals, such as hitmen, drug traffickers, and buchonas (among other examples). Fieldwork planning always considered the use of informed consent that specifies the topic, the research objective, and the type of information requested, as well as ensuring the safety of the interviewees and the handling of their data (another criterion is involved).

This point is relevant for two reasons: first, because the term buchona, the central theme of the research, carries a pejorative perception and is invariably linked to drug trafficking. Second, because it is not an affiliation, club, or membership, but rather identifying elements of the narrative of an emerging culture based on the specific practices of the participants. It should be noted that the label buchona is given by society; it is a label, not a voluntary choice, although certainly, there are cases where some women, without preamble, publicly identify as buchonas.

The informed consent for the interviews aimed to collect data for exploring the following topics: “Narcoculture”, “Beauty”, and “Instagram”. Additionally, consent was sought for conducting the interview and the subsequent use of the collected data for scientific purposes in academic writing. The document states that no basic data that could identify or relate to the participants are requested, as they contribute to the respect and dignity of the research participants.

Another principle is to avoid harm to individuals, as stated in UNESCO’s Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights: “the possible harmful effects on those individuals should be reduced to the minimum” (UNESCO 2005). This criterion is related to justice, which implies the obligation to treat participants fairly and equally. From the researcher’s perspective, it is important to maintain an equitable view and avoid prejudices that could affect the data interpretation process. This research promoted the participation of informants of different ages and from various socioeconomic backgrounds.

The final principle seeks to ensure the scientific quality or validity of the study for its contribution. This criterion requires that both bioethics committees and researchers are confident that the proposed studies are scientifically sound, can be supported by a theoretical framework, and that the collected data can generate valuable information for the proposed topic. However, this alone is not enough, as the scientific value of the study is insufficient; the contribution must be valuable and promote an understanding of the phenomenon. This is why many investigations related to drug trafficking cannot prosper.

5. Methodological Challenges

Scientific validity as a concern in the methodological process of research arises during the engagement with informants due to the nature of their activities or connections. This principle’s Achilles’ heel lies in the number of encounters and the time allocated to each interview. The likelihood of sitting face-to-face with the female partners of drug traffickers is not something the researcher can determine with certainty; rather, it depends on the time granted based on agreements, prior to reading the informed consent and before starting an interview.

During the time allocated for fieldwork to gather information for this research, several visits were made to city bars, where some women start working as waitresses with the goal of finding the profile they seek, drug traffickers. These are also places frequented by buchonas, where they develop strategies to find their partners. “Woman killed in motel-bar” was the headline of a local newspaper, Diario de Juárez, on 28 October 2017, where a waitress was murdered in front of an informant of this research, just two days after initial contact in that place.

It is crucial to mention that, in many cases, women must obtain permission from their partners to establish contact and, even more so, to grant an interview. While informants may initially show interest, their lack of freedom to answer questions or their silence can indicate that they do not have the independence to make decisions.

The pool of potential women who could participate in the research is already small, and it shrinks further once the nature of the questions is known. Based on the number of attempts and failed interviews, second-order interpretations can be made about how male domination manifests in these environments, where male hierarchy is the backbone.

The methodological challenge is evident in the difficulty of conducting enough interviews to achieve the data repetition that is commonly sought in research. As an alternative, observing the environments in which these practices occur can offer valuable insights. Therefore, in-depth interviews are complemented by netnographic review, akin to an image-based hermeneutic approach, where the goal is to reconstruct the worlds of these women through the content they share. Then, netnography means an important structure to solve the collection of information in violent contexts. There are two fundamental reasons to use this technique. First, because there are few study subjects who granted interviews. Second, because the characteristic features of narcoculture are shared and multiplied on Instagram like a natural environment. However, like ethnography, netnography involves some challenges for the researcher. For example, the interaction changes to the pure observation of an image or data such as an Instagram post; the benefit is that it allows to understand the perspective of the subjects who become interlocutors based on their discourses and practices.

Another problem in the digital realm, particularly on social networks, is that challenges extend to the inability to use images due to copyright restrictions. Legally, Instagram’s guidelines require that for copyrighted content, explicit approval must be obtained to post, distribute, and republish images, videos, etc. (personal translation). However, these guidelines do not prohibit working with data derived from observation. The limitation refers to reproducing partial or total photographs of user content, which is why the netnographic work is not illustrated with some of the images used. Additionally, the names or pseudonyms of the accounts are not shared as part of the protection of data that ensures respect and dignity for the research participants.

The biggest challenge arises from the impossibility of establishing fluid face-to-face communication to conduct the interviews. The informants exhibit itinerant communication, which prevents developing in-depth approaches. Although it is a disadvantage in ethnography, in the digital scenario, the advantage is the frequency with which they share details of their lives on social networks. These details and information are always related to aspirational life scenarios based on material acquisitions, such as vacation destinations, physical activities, fashion stores, and restaurants. From this perspective, it is easy to understand their consumption patterns and the styles they seek to develop. In other words, their profiles reveal much about them. While most of these profiles are public, when an interview is proposed, the feasibility of engaging them in person is significantly reduced.

Therefore, it is important to remember that the netnographic review reconstructs the understanding of their worlds based on their intentions, which is evident in the information they share through their posts (Kozinets 2010).

There are three axes that focus on the stereotype constructed on buchonas’ Instagram based on netnography. Their speech, which focuses on receiving material goods, with expressions that emphasize that they deserve a lot for being pretty. For example, expressions like the following ones that were reviewed from Instagram profiles focus their attention on the image in the obligation to be rewarded (Figure 1):

“A guy came up offering me flight discounts. Boy, do I look like I buy my own flights?” accompanied by laughing emojis.

Another, “On the contrary, make it obvious so they don’t come near me”, referring to the fact that only wealthy men can approach her.

“Pretend I’m not interested?”

Another axis is the need to remain fashionable, buying but above all showing off each of the items they buy. Buchonas are constituted as imitators of aspirational models where the need to distinguish themselves is part of the rule to achieve differentiation (Simmel 1988). The aesthetics of their bodies imply the way in which they are detached from the practical norms of life. The exaggeration and expansion of their body shapes has to do with two basic functions of fashion goal, unifying and differentiating. In all the publications reviewed, the brands of their clothing occupy a privileged space in the image, since they have the sense of belonging through clothing and accessories. It unites them as an invisible group in the practices of narco culture, and differentiates them, given the impossibility of average women to buy these clothing brands.

The last axis focuses on their bodies. The specific idea of imitating beauty molds generates the need to expand their curves and show them off on posts. The construction of femininity in Mexico has an important antecedent back to colonization (1521) and was reconstructed in the last century after the revolution (1920), being reinforced by the emergence of television as a media outlet.

Basically, the idea of beauty is related to a white skin tone and exaggerated and developed bodies as a product that is displayed, or in other words, sexualized.

In the posts reviewed, women exhibit their bodies with sexual references. Their bodies appear in close-ups in suggestive poses wearing luxury clothing brands.

6. Background in Fieldwork Within Violent Contexts

This article represents the continuation of work developed over the past ten years. Initially, as a communications specialist embedded in the media, I practiced journalism in Ciudad Juárez, which brought me close to issues involving the violence stemming from drug trafficking practices on the northern border of Mexico. My doctoral thesis (2011–2015) focused on the cultural representations of sicarios (hitmen), which required fieldwork involving in-depth interviews with both incarcerated and free sicarios. Since then, the narrative derived from these interviews, often conducted under risky conditions, has been a consistent element in my subsequent work, seeking to broaden the perspective presented in two books: Primero jóvenes y luego sicarios (2021) and Listening to Sicarios (2022).

The study of buchonas and the concept of narcoculture signifies a continuation of the work involving interviews with sicarios, who are central figures in the violence; buchonas offer a lens into the narco world, where through platforms like Instagram, they contribute to the dissemination of elements that society begins to replicate in everyday life. The stereotype built around the lifestyle of buchonas is concerning, as other studies suggest that being a buchona for women, or a sicario for men, is becoming one of the main alternatives manifested by marginalized youth in states like Chihuahua, Sinaloa, and Sonora.

In a study titled Estudiantes de educación media superior y vulnerabilidad social, una experiencia de investigación—acción by Sandra Villareal, (A junior and senior high school students and social vulnerability, a research-action experience) conducted in 2017 in the municipality of Satevó, Chihuahua, near the Sierra region, the results show that the gender stereotype of the buchona is seen as an aspirational figure, one that young women could leverage to improve their lives. The students who participated in the research acknowledged that while the drug world has its risks, they admire and accept it, seeing it as an alternative to change their impoverished situations (Vega Villareal 2016).

Young people are aware that the resources they possess are not enough to achieve success. Elements such as the proliferation of the profiles referenced in this study suggest that a segment of young women do not rely on formal employment or education for their advancement but rather on the support of a third party.

This article shares a part of preliminary results of a more extensive work, the writing of a book, which addresses the phenomenon in its entirety. The fieldwork carried out for four years has had several phases to complete and is now in the last part. All stages have presented common challenges. The lack of a procedures’ manual or a guide for carrying out fieldwork in risky contexts makes the outlook difficult. The search for reliable data despite the circumstances has the objective of providing objective information that can enrich the debate. Because there is an opening of research into a current phenomenon, it is established that the strategies followed can improve as there are more similar approaches and data are shared.

7. Tracing Routes: Thick Description Fragment

In April 2009, I had my first contact with a sicario as a journalist. This was linked to my work as a field producer during one of the most violent periods in a contemporary Mexican border city. Between 2013 and 2016, I had the opportunity to interview eight sicarios, most of whom were free, active, and saw themselves as “working” for a company or cartel. My background as a journalist and my ability to establish connections facilitated these interviews. Several years later, in 2018, during the rise of what can be understood as narcoculture, I shifted my focus to the beauty that emerges within those closed circles of narco power, where the women associated with drug traffickers became increasingly public figures, thanks to social media.

To begin planning the fieldwork, I developed a plan to approach potential informants. However, the intermediaries who had helped me secure interviews with sicarios were not interested in facilitating contact with buchonas. The chain of command is simple: if you want to interview the partner or lover of a drug trafficker, you must have permission from both the man and the woman. However, the reality is more complex for three main reasons. First, although their social media profiles are often public and they benefit from having thousands or millions of followers, they are not interested in personal interviews, especially academic ones, which do not increase their follower count or offer them financial compensation. Second, there is a level of secrecy regarding whether they are involved with a drug trafficker; many are not wives but rather lovers. Third, the term buchona carries a pejorative connotation, which complicates the explanation and purpose of an interview. In my experience, withholding information to secure an informant is not advisable. The informants needed to understand that the quality of the interview was tied to their identity as a buchona. That plan did not work, and I had to find another approach to reach them.

The next phase in attempting to engage with a buchona involved visiting the places they frequent. This led me to bars and cantinas, opening the possibility of at least conducting field observation. I visited and walked through some trendy bars in Ciudad Juárez, realizing that the exception becomes the rule. The buchona fashion is spread out like a giant puzzle, a kind of visual essay that allows one to piece together the elements that objectify narcoculture. At first glance, it is easy to identify what you see: tight, short, patterned dresses, extravagant fake nails, long wavy or straight hair, tiny waists, large black eyelashes, and makeup that mimics the style. Watches, jewelry, and handbags complete the image that leaves anyone familiar with the value of these accessories in doubt. On a more complex level, their behavior speaks volumes, such as frequent vaping and ordering those expensive, “cute” drinks designed to be seen—breaking open a pink Moët champagne bottle decorated with cherries in the middle of the night, sometimes contrasted with a beer, like Tecate, in hand, and singing along to corridos by Carín León or Peso Pluma, while the scent of fruity electronic cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, and fine perfumes fills the air.

The idea of trying to engage in that environment proved unrealistic, as they were out to have fun, and an interview was not a priority. Additionally, the risk of misunderstandings with their friends added to the challenges. This second plan did not lead to an interview but did result in a connection that allowed me to make progress later.

While discussing the topic, someone told me about a woman who worked at a bar and might be willing to share her story. The only background I knew was that she had been romantically involved with people connected to drug trafficking, and the person emphasized, “she’s a very good person”. Without using this individual as an intermediary, I decided to visit the bar on my own and present my request. A bar in northern Mexico is a cantina primarily staffed by young women in sexy outfits, who, like in brothels, can be invited for a drink to gain their attention.

Her name is ‘Liz’, a 22-year-old university student of short stature whose image matched that of a buchona. It is worth noting that, due to the nature of the job, the attributes of an employee at these establishments require them to dress lightly. Establishing rapport with ‘Liz’ was initially easy since I was a customer at the time, and they are usually open to informal chats. The complexity arose when it came time to discuss the topic; it was evident that when emotions and personal relationships were involved, the mood of the conversation diminished. Without making it obvious, I communicated the subject and my aspirations without formally requesting an interview with her. A couple of weeks later, I returned, and she immediately asked if I had found someone, to which I replied that I had not. Then, voluntarily, she told me that she had been involved with a drug trafficker. On that same occasion, without beginning the interview, she provided valuable information that filled in some of the gaps in my initial doubts. The bar was not an ideal place to conduct an interview, so I suggested continuing our conversation at a library.

8. Final Comments

In social sciences, the efforts to understand and develop strategies that allow researchers to safely conduct fieldwork in violent contexts are insufficient (Valletin 2018). Each researcher must develop the skills and tools necessary to achieve their goals, based on their specific needs, objectives, and limitations. Through the strategies I have implemented, I have been able to make progress and collect significant data, which allows me to refocus and discuss analysis categories for further reflection. However, the prevailing climate of violence and insecurity in Mexico contributes to the emergence of increasingly complex and risky social phenomena to explore.

It is important to emphasize that the interview is a powerful tool that relies on a basic principle: rapport, the empathy generated in the first minutes between the researcher and the informant. Instant rapport is crucial for the rest of the interview to be successful. The rapport achieved during the interviews, which constitute the main body of collected data, was, I must admit, not ideal. Nevertheless, given the number of interviews I have conducted, both deep and superficial, it is pertinent to mention that buchonas are complex and abstract research subjects, paradoxically contrasting with how public their lives may seem.

The greatest challenge was trying to penetrate an invisible wall between the researcher and the informant. This barrier, it can be inferred, materializes the kind of violence that does not use physical force but functions as a form of imposition, a power that is only perceptible through subtle manifestations. It is as if there is an agreement between the buchona and her partner, but a gag suppresses the flow of information. From the anthropological tradition, the community could contribute to the acceptance of the researcher, and thus, the relationship with the informants could be dynamic and expressive. However, there are spaces that I would call “closed”, where, to ensure the safety of the researcher, it is better not to venture.

Answering the research question, how can researchers address the contradictions posed by the need to rely on sources that may not be completely reliable or that are influenced by their context?, is the biggest challenge of this article. Some topics, such as those related to drug trafficking in Mexico, lack hard or official data. Issues related to drug trafficking in Mexico do not have reliable data. The impunity rate is high, and corruption affects all government powers, which distances it from the eye of scientific social research. Efforts are made from social scientific research to provide diagnoses and evaluations of complex phenomena. Then the researcher must deal with methodology gaps, due to the nature of the topics and in this case of those involved. The journalistic contribution only serves as a starting point or reference for the visualization of emerging problems among the population. Narcoculture cannot be separated from a brutal world, focused on the manifestations of violence and money, also illegal, where the participating women are victims who become raw material for the perversions of its members, a result of masculine domination established in an atrocious and finite world.

The result of this research aims to offer an initial look at the challenges involved in approaching the world of buchonas, which is developing with force and spreading with the speed of social networks. It is pertinent to understand that observing (traditional ethnography) research subjects related to drug trafficking practices is different from any other subject. The nature of their practices gives a different personality to an ordinary person: paranoid and violent temperaments must be considered. Informants tend to be defensive although there are no prior judgments.

Netnography is a functional complement to reduce the researcher’s risk in the topics. However, netnography does not replace ethnography, but rather both complement each other. Observation of Instagram profiles offered important data without the need to approach the subject or ask them. These pictures, which at first may seem abstract (the narrative of Instagram images is different from Facebook or other social networks), offer data that have been interpreted based on the defined variables. The disadvantage of not being able to interview the informants face to face is complemented favorably by using a native channel (Instagram) for them. Then, the language is simplified, since this social network is precisely a common space, in which most of the contents of interest for research are born and disseminated. Their speeches (posts’ text messages) allow us to understand part of the approach to their aspirations, considering that the platform is for entertainment and recreation.

The review of their profiles made it possible to identify relevant aspects, for example, that being a buchona can also be understood as a fashion trend. While for some, it is a lifestyle, there are others who follow its patterns like a fashion. Within this framework, it can be established that there are different categories that involve the term. At the same time, it can be deduced that genuine buchonas, faithful to the initial definition of the term, are few, less public, and for security reasons, they decide not to speak. This is one of the reasons why the sample is small.

Finally, the virtual or digital world reflects what is happening in the real world. But it is important to highlight that behavior on social networks sometimes differs from the person’s usual behavior. Netnography made it possible to discover and, above all, analyze cultural trends that are specifically developed in this environment (Web 2.0), such as the connections between informants through behavioral patterns and how they become influences for others. This tool allows to obtain information and reflect to adjust the hypothesis and thus have a broader look at such a complex phenomenon.

The speed of people’s lives is continually developing both in their real lives and in what happens on their social network. There are more and more virtual spaces, and they are gaining ground among new generations, which is why conventional techniques must adapt and even innovate in the face of a polysemic ecosystem (Paech 2009).

As a research technique, netnography offers a real possibility to address what happens in virtual communities, where the basic language is digital. It is important to mention that this technique should be incorporated more into social research, since the virtual environment is increasingly present in people’s lives. It is from the Internet that new needs and interests of its users are emerging. The idea of no questions reduces the margins of error, as a non-intrusive technique, in which the researcher is not even seen during the observation process. This netnographic model is open and flexible, but it is necessary to delimit its use and scope to measure its advantages (Kozinets 2010).

From a phenomenological perspective, the truth about ethnography is found in the interpretation of lived experiences and is always partial. In netnography, there is a double effort to reinterpret the author in a digital scenario, in which the world of the other is sought to be represented (Ryan 2008).

As Manuel Castells says, what is happening today with the Internet has to do with the counterculture of creating new social forms while it links to the business culture of making money through the production of varied content, under a discourse unifying culture of freedom (Castells 2002).

The ongoing challenge is to articulate relevant and pertinent projects during hostile environments where, from the outset, the researcher is constantly confronted with scenarios of little or no security. In addition to developing strategies that allow the collection of information, it is crucial to ensure the safety and respect of the participants while simultaneously achieving scientific rigor.