Videoclips about Corridos
from Arizona Illustrated

Folklorist Big Jim Griffiths tells us about the history of corridos. from Arizona Illustrated, May 14, 2001 RealPlayer time 01:44

Transcript:

Bill Buckmaster: Big Jim Griffith with his "Weekly Traditions" segment. Dr. Griffith is a Research Associate with the University of Arizona-based Southwest Center.

Dr. James S. Griffith: A lot of them start off with a phrase like [speaking Spanish] Gentlemen, I'm going to sing you a ballad. Or they set the time and place for action. [singing in Spanish] Which of course simply means on March 17th in the city of Agua Prieta. What I'm talking about is corridos, Mexican ballads. They have an ancient, ancient pedigree. They are ancestor of the romances of renaissance and medieval Spain but very much a thing of here and now, because Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in Southern Arizona and Sonora remember and know about and sing and compose corridos on almost any kind of topic. Anything that happens in the news affecting that community is liable to get a corrido written about it. The death of the El Salvadorians a few years ago out in the desert; the Clifton-Morenci strike, all of these had corridos on them. Horse races, murders, court cases of any kind much importance. Anything that affects the population has a ballad, at least one, written on it. Even favorite towns - a Corrido de Nogales and a Corrido de Tucson. And some of them aren't remembered, some of them are just written. Some of them get sung for a long time. Some of them are still remembered after 50 years. But whatever they are, they are a very, very important part of our borderland heritage.