Corridos are essentially Mexican folksongs depicting real life events but exaggerating specific points to enrich the story or glorify the hero. These songs are comprised of four lined stanzas consisting of eight syllables per line.  The beat behind the music is generally a waltz or a polka rhythm. Corridos descend from the Castillion Romance, and the Spanish, Scottish, Russian, and Greek Ballad which were popular in the middle Ages, but the corrido emerged during the middle to late 19th century during the Mexican Revolution.  Corridistas wrote about their heroes and the heroic deeds that these men did.  Corridos were written about Pancho Villa, Emilio Zapata, Ignacio & Jacinto Trevino, and Aniceto Pizana.  But the epitome of the corrido hero was Gregorio Cortez whose legend is still discussed today.  According to El Corrido De Gregorio Cortez, Cortez, a peaceful man, killed a sheriff as revenge for his brother, and then outwitted and out ran 300 Texas Rangers before he was captured and put in jail.  Legend has it that Cortez rode a sorrel mare 500 miles around Texas and when he came in contact with the Rangers they were scared of him, and had to exaggerate the story and say there was the “Cortez Gang” to save face1.  Though the legend is obviously part fiction, the historical story portrays much of the same events and Cortez as a great folk hero for Mexicans. 

In 1956 Americo Paredes wrote his dissertation on this legend, which was published as a book, WITH HIS PISTOL IN HIS HAND, and later adapted into a movie, THE BALLAD OF GREGORIO CORTEZ.  As the 20th century began corridos saw a drop on popularity, fewer were being written and fewer were being sung.  This lasted until the mid 1900's when corridos reappeared to depict the struggles of farm workers, and a new hero, Cesar Chavez, was idolized by corridistas.  The new corridos strayed from the heroic accomplishments of strong men, and leaned towards innocent migrant workers struggle against the villain, the gringo farmers.  Corridos are still changing; during the 1970's the Narcocorrido emerged with the group Los Tigres Del Norte blazing a path for future corridistas. Narcocorridos are ballads about drugs, corruption, and crime.  Today these corridos are compared to rap music of the United States .  Content and lifestyles of corridistas and rappers make this comparison valid.  One corridista, Chalino Sanchez, not only carries his gun on stage with him, but shot back at a man trying to

assassinate him2.  Corridos are still very popular along the border between Mexico and the United States, radio and billboard charts prove that corridos have lasted the test of time.