A Little Bit about Corridos

Corridos are a Mexican or Mexican American song type similar to a ballad. They tell a story of an event and can provide social commentary on that event.   “Corridos about immigration portray the perception of the migrant experience by migrants themselves as a complex and multidimentional phenonomen. Themes of corridos related to migration include the following:

“(1) the feelings of the migrant experience, which are sometimes positive and others negative and a combination of both, (2) the economical and social contexts that force immigrants to leave their country, (3) the contributions migrants make to the U.S. and Mexican economy, and (4) personal and collective strategies to cope with the immigration experience…” (Chew-Sanchez, n.d., p. 8).

 Corridos may be divided into seven broad themes:

 “(1) homesickness which includes topics related to loneliness and feelings of missing the migrants’ relatives and loved ones; (2) border-crossing strategies. Under this topic the characters that may be involved in the corrido are: coyotes, INS officials, people who helped on their way to the United States; (3) racial and cultural discrimination that Mexican immigrants experience in the United States; (4) political issues that explain the economic and social situation that pushed migrants to leave their country; (5) love (this topic is more prominent in corridos that depict young immigrant males who left their girlfriends or wives in Mexico and came to the United States in order to go back and marry or to provide a better economic life to a wife); (6) acculturation.  In corridos is a topic of fear and anxiety (corridos tend to be critical of those who deny their Mexican roots or do not feel attachment to Mexico); and (7) death which can be part of the drama of corridos about immigration, particularly when crossing the U.S./Mexican border.” (Chew-Sanchez, n.d., pp. 8-9)

 A famous corrido, “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez” has been written about in academics in the book With a Pistol in his hand: A border ballad and its hero” by Américo Paredes. One of Paredes’ students actually wrote a ballad about Paredes translated as “With a pen in his hand.” For migration corridos, go to http://parentseyes.arizona.edu/msw/corrido/index.html and scroll down to listen to “Señor Migra” by Jack Baker [“Migra” refers to border patrol] and “Corrido Del Bracero Fracasado.” With the QT option you can follow along with the translation as the music plays.  New corridos are created each year, I hope Jim Griffith and Mexican American and Mexican scholars follow in Paredes’ footsteps and musicians continue to perform and collect the ballads.

 References

Bernal, J. (2006, January 17). The Catholic Church and its migrant members: Spiritua capital in a sending  community. Retrieved September 25, 2007, from http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/rla/papers/Jesse/pdf

 Chew-Sanchez, M .I. (n.d.). Cultural memory in the rituals of the Mexican diaspora in the United States: the role of the corridos about immigration played by conjuntos norteños and the aesthetics of bailes norteños. Retrieved September 24, 2007, from http://latino.si.edu/researchandmuseums/presentations/chewsanchez_papers.html