MUSIC 26AC Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Corrido, 2 Pistols, Black Market
The Border September 4, 7
• The Border
o Political boundary
▪ Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)
▪ Seizing lands that had been held by former Mexican citizens
▪ Systematic loss of land – Mexico cedes about half of their land to the US
▪ Now: more or less static border (where the line is); heavily drawn land using a border
o Political-economic tool
▪ 1910: Mexican Revolution
▪ Mexican immigrants or people that lived in this geographic region
▪ Speaking both English and Spanish; speaking only one; choosing to speak one
language based on the context
▪ Language is way for people to understand the people who are around them
▪ Intense confrontation between Mexico and the US on their standing (ie: developed
vs. developing nations)
o Concept of the border is not unique to the US and Mexico
• Mexican, Mexican-American, Chicano
o Questions about culture, citizenship
o Used to distinguish certain dynamics from others
o How someone sees themselves culturally (ie: 1st generation immigrant – roots in Mexico, but
has lived in the US their whole life)
o Chicano: adopted in the 60s by young Mexican-American folk; used to signal political voices
and the pressures of marginalization; space for their political voice
• Corridos
o Narrative ballads, originally from Spain – tells a story (ie: tragedy, heroes that have been
through triumph)
o Strict lyrical form (8 syllable lines, rhyming/assonance)
o Strophic form (AAA)
o Unvaried emotional delivery
▪ Harmony: combinations of notes that create larger context for melody
• Two or more notes sounded together (ie: sung or played)
• Underlying chord structure for a piece
o Oral tradition – the only ways that some people were getting news; songs were infused with
the immediate history, and people moved around and spread the news
▪ Song form preserved and disseminated in most of its history as oral and aurally
transmitted
▪ No longer the case now that we have written forms of these songs and mechanical
recordings
• Song #2: La Rielera (The Railroad Woman)
o Gritos → cries
o Woman who brings food for her man and 2 pistols (one for her beloved and one for her rival)
o Love story, but love story set within a particular conflict marked by the larger space of the
revolution
• Still issues and struggles that we are embroiled in
o Question about immigration is still potent
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