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Part of being vaguely ashamed of being multifannish is that way back then I still thought it was necessary to to know all of canon before being into a fandom, so I have in fact watched the whole Mariachi trilogy. I watched the first one in Spanish, with no subtitles, for class! I don't know how much of the Spanish I understood, but I also don't remember it being a movie where the dialog was really all that necessary? I remember Desperado I quite liked, and also I still owe someone a fic from 3_ships 2004 which still haunts me with guilt.
Once Upon A Time in Mexico involved El Mariachi, the brooding loner who just wants his music but keeps having to shoot people, being recruited by Sands, a sociopathic renegade CIA agent, as part of a plot to do something involving the cartels and the Mexican government? El Mariachi walks out unscathed (except for trauma) as always, still a hero, but Sands loses hold of his plots and ends up eyeless, friendless and bleeding out in the street. Close curtain.
There was probably more to the plot that that? But literally every fanfic was about El Mariachi finding Sands after canon, and the two of them figuring out how to be people again with each other's help. (Also gunfights. There are a lot of gunfights.) I was basically in this fandom for a) enemyslash, b) OTT hypercompetence, c) what I call "recovery" fic, that's sort of like hurt/comfort except the hurt is canon and the comfort isn't all that comforting?
Anyway here's recs. I haven't re-read most of them in at least fifteen years, so if they haven't held up, go talk to 2004 me, not current me!
- La Canción de los Pistolas (65244 words) by auburn
Fandom: Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: El Mariachi/Sheldon Jeffrey Sands, Ramirez/OFC
Additional Tags: Action/Adventure, Post-Canon
El Mariachi finds Sands after canon, and the two of them figure out how to be people again with each other's help. (Also, they shoot some people who deserve it.) - After the Dust Has Cleared (26859 words) by missbecky
Fandom: Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Sands/El
Additional Tags: Angst, Violence, Don't copy to another site
Series: Part 1 of Still Standing
El Mariachi finds Sands after canon, and the two of them figure out how to be people again with each other's help. (Also, they shoot some people who deserve it.) - Wires (65065 words) by TiggyMalvern
Chapters: 13/13
Fandom: El Mariachi Trilogy (Movies)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: El Mariachi/Sheldon Jeffrey Sands
Additional Tags: Canon-Typical Violence, enemies to resentful allies to friends, or as close to friends as Sands will ever get, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Manipulation, Do Not Repost to Other Sites
Series: Part 1 of The Wires Series
El Mariachi finds Sands after canon, and the two of them figure out how to be people again with each other's help. (Also, they shoot some people who deserve it.)