Mexican Corridos

Growing up in southern California and with both parents working in the crop fields, we as children had little education from our parents.. Both of them were uneducated, and could not help us much in our studies not only because of their lack of education, but also because they worked over 60 hours, and little to no time to share with us any knowledge of our culture. We rarely listened to music in our home, because most of the time that our parents were with was set aside for house work. The only music we did hear in our house was from our mother who liked to listen to Javier Solis, a popular singer of boleros and rancheras and a movie actor. Now that I read his biography and found out that he was born Gabriel Siria Levario it occurred to me
They are related to the Spanish heroic ballads known as romances, corridos have been defined in several or different ways. To start with there is the classic corrido a story ballad, it is usually be put together with regular verses of four written in lines that have eight syllables in each line. Starting with lyrics that set the situation, tone or theme just like in a play, then telling a story, and ending with a farewell or good bye (adios). The Mexican corrido may have appeared as a separate style in the early 19th century and reached a peak of admiration or height during the Mexican Revolution which lasted from 1910 through 1920. The revolution broke out between the Mexican government with backing of the elite land owners who did not want to distribute land to lower class and rural peasants. The government and the elite would confiscate large sections of land from the poor peasants and sell it off to foreign companies. This brought great anger and uprising particularly from the northern states and the southern states. The northern states were led by Poncho Villa and the southern states were led by Emiliano Zapata and thus the cultural expression and dealings of the revolution the Corridos of the Mexican revolution gave proof. They needed heroes in their corridos for their struggle of land reform, to tell and re-count like important events, battles,
The Narco corrido appeared on the scene mainly because of the drug influx to the United States. The drugs mainly “cocaine” came by way of Colombia, the Colombians needed way or middle man to transport the drugs into the United States so they looked to the Mexicans to do their deed. The Mexican economy at the time was in a very poor status. Men and women were out of work and some looked for an easy rich scheme and this drug trafficking scheme was an easy and attractive way to get there. The Narco corridos were and are accordion based and brass band other instruments are the bajo sexton with 12 strings different to the 6 string traditional and at times are accompanied by trumpets, clarinets, valve trombones, tuba, and drums The Narco corridos are sometimes, but not always composed and performed by amateurs and some professionals and dealing with local events and characters or broader issues such as political corruption and immigration in a way to describe their harsh travel to the United States. The main focus of the Narco corrido is the glorification of drug smugglers and the bloody cartel wars of Mexico, with murder, men holding stacks of hundred dollar bills. In the compact discs you will see the musicians dressed in upscale cowboy attire with Russian made automatic assault rifles plated in gold. The narco