Author Archives: Syndicated User

With His Pistol in His Hand: Part 2

I have really enjoyed this book and have found it quite interesting. Through this text I was able to learn more about the history of the corrido which is an essential part in Mexico’s history, its people and its culture. Usually when the topic of corrido is brought up or when I am found studying on it I usually relate it to the Mexican Revolution and the heroes of this Revolution facing life and death struggles in the midst of combat and being idols for many and dedicating songs to their strength and perseverance. Not until I read this book was I really aware of the importance of the corrido in the Mexican American border history and to its people living in those areas. This musical form of work and its evolution in becoming a piece of music that people identify with and relate with has much of its beginnings connected to the U.S.-Mexico border and its people and the events that have occurred in that area.

As Paredes states, the biggest theme and the most important one found in the corrido is the one about the border conflict. This style of music  is used to remember that one hero that fought for his right and one who is able to become and idol for many. One of these heroes being Gregorio Cortez. People of the Rio Grande are able to connect with Cortez and rally around him as he has probably suffered through or witnessed injustices or ill-treatments like many, yet he decides to take a stand against it and stand up for his right and ability to defend himself.  He is a man that is able to endure the mistreatment of the Americans. He becomes a figure of importance to the people of the border because for them Cortez like many other figures represent someone who is willing to fight against an oppressive authority and its treatment and laws.

One interesting aspect of the corrido is though it is a simple form of music, meaning that it is mostly easy to understand and analyze I believe that Paredes wants to also make a point that it is still very much artistic and worthy of academic research. He uses much of the second part to analyze its roots, patterns and themes. The corrido though at first glance may seem very direct and effortless it has a vast cultural and musical significance for the border culture.

With His Pistol in His Hand: Part 2

I have really enjoyed this book and have found it quite interesting. Through this text I was able to learn more about the history of the corrido which is an essential part in Mexico’s history, its people and its culture. Usually when the topic of corrido is brought up or when I am found studying on it I usually relate it to the Mexican Revolution and the heroes of this Revolution facing life and death struggles in the midst of combat and being idols for many and dedicating songs to their strength and perseverance. Not until I read this book was I really aware of the importance of the corrido in the Mexican American border history and to its people living in those areas. This musical form of work and its evolution in becoming a piece of music that people identify with and relate with has much of its beginnings connected to the U.S.-Mexico border and its people and the events that have occurred in that area.

As Paredes states, the biggest theme and the most important one found in the corrido is the one about the border conflict. This style of music  is used to remember that one hero that fought for his right and one who is able to become and idol for many. One of these heroes being Gregorio Cortez. People of the Rio Grande are able to connect with Cortez and rally around him as he has probably suffered through or witnessed injustices or ill-treatments like many, yet he decides to take a stand against it and stand up for his right and ability to defend himself.  He is a man that is able to endure the mistreatment of the Americans. He becomes a figure of importance to the people of the border because for them Cortez like many other figures represent someone who is willing to fight against an oppressive authority and its treatment and laws.

One interesting aspect of the corrido is though it is a simple form of music, meaning that it is mostly easy to understand and analyze I believe that Paredes wants to also make a point that it is still very much artistic and worthy of academic research. He uses much of the second part to analyze its roots, patterns and themes. The corrido though at first glance may seem very direct and effortless it has a vast cultural and musical significance for the border culture.

With His Pistol in His Hand (Part 2)

What stood out to me the most in this second half were the different variations of the corrido; what’s interesting to me is what details are added to/taken out of the original corrido. It seems that the variants get (for the most part) shorter and shorter, according to the way in which Paredes has organized them; “Varient I” is only 6 quatrains, while “Varient A” is 12. These changes in length fascinate me as one would think that over time they would become longer, because more and more details would be added (at least that’s what makes sense to me). I would assume that with the exaggerations, more details would be added (whether they be factual or invented doesn’t matter) but I was wrong. Some variants seem to mention at the beginning the county of El Carmen, but “Variation I” does not; it only mentions “Piedras Negras”.

In the first half of the book what interested me the most about the corrido is how direct the language is; if we think about it, it’s just telling a story. Descriptions are kept to a minimum, and that includes adjectives, figurative language, etc. I wondered about the role of imagery, and if the corrido was at all meant to provoke emotion through painting pictures in our heads. Flash forward to page 216, and my wonders were addressed: “But the corrido is not entirely bare of imagery”. We are told that in Gregorio Cortez there is figurative language used in a number of instances; the imagery used in these instances can be divided into two types. The first type is that that has its basis in real life of the Border; the other type is that which is “purely conventional and unsupported”, and even “contradicted by observation of things that the borderer knows” (216). I guess what I find interesting about this is the level of detail in the information extracted from the corrido – it reminds me of studying poetry. It made me realize that when you put words on a paper, you can analyze it in a completely different way that say, hearing it. I was also interested in what Paredes had to say about the symbol of the white dove. On page 218, the white dove is addressed: the faces of Cortez’s pursuers are said to be “whiter than a dove”. However, as Paredes suggests, it is unlikely that a white dove was ever seen; it is from religious paintings.

With a Pistol in His Hand (Part 2)

I think this book was so great, because it brings into question the role of class, of culture, of dominance and of resistance. Although it is a folklore, Americo Paredes shows how the ‘myths’ of Gregorio Cortez incorporate important historical events, whilst putting an artistic twist on many perspectives of these events. As such, this book was certainly beneficial in many communities as it gave light to new views and meaning in the tales of Gregorio Cortez. I think that it is important to recognize, however, that Cortez was not the first, nor the last, to go through the obstacles and hardships mentioned in the story. There has since been, and continues to be, subordination of Mexican communities. This got me thinking about the role and influence With His Pistol in His Hand after it was published, particularly within the Chicano population.

After a bit of research, I found that Paredes’ book became popular in the sociopolitical realm in the 1960s, which broadened the scope of readers and gave it more meaning in the world. It seems that the groups that were particularly intrigued by the book were groups of young adult working-class Mexican Americans, especially those who attended either college or university. These individuals apparently took part in some political protests and cultural rebellion that were occurring at this time. Thus, Paredes’ study on this anthropological folklore was not only scholarly but was written in such a poetic and artistic manner that it had tremendous impact on the Chicano writers in the new generation, as well as on other intellectuals and the general activist population. One major aspect is the obvious fact that Cortez is recognized as a hero in the book, and most likely serves as a role model for young Chicanos who were/are resisting Anglo authority. However, it was also probably the actual publication of the text, as it was proven that it was even possible for a Chicano author to publish. In addition to that, this book shows that it is possible to talk about a Chicano in a new light, and for that to be heard and recognized within society.

This made me reflect on how much influence literature can have on people, both positive and negative. For instance, how we were talking about American Dirt and how much of an impact and dialogue it was causing on its readers. As cliché as it sounds, words are powerful. Authors do have quite a bit of power and influence over their readers, especially when well-written. With a Pistol in His Hand is a perfect example of this; this book began as a thesis statement, a man exploring his interest and curiosities of Gregorio Cortez, and then turned out to touch and inspire the lives of many. Pretty darn cool.

With His Pistol in His Hand: Part Two

In reading the last half of With His Pistol in His Hand, what stood out to me was the profound history of the transformation of the corrido and also the slight word choices (and verb tenses) that added to the imagery and storytelling of the story of Gregorio Cortez. The legend of Gregorio Cortez told by Paredes in the beginning of the book is only one variant of this tale and its interesting to see that there are another 9 variants that all highlight different events. Though the other 9 variants show the diverse history of the corrido, I am amazed to see the strategically placed adjectives and verb tenses, mainly the imperfect tense, that submerge the listener into the life of Cortez. I never truly appreciated literary analysis until the study of this legend.

The diversity and transformation of El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez is pretty remarkable. Each variant comes from a different part of Mexico and each carries its own message that it wants to deliver. Some corridos stress the importance of the initial killing of Sheriff Morris while others gloss over it almost entirely. Some stress the importance of the surrender of Cortez, showing that he fought for his right till the very end, but others emphasize how the ending, the despedida, shows Cortez not giving into the police and hinting that he lived the rest of his life as a free man. The variance of the corrido reveals the attitudes of the ballad singers and the message they wanted to convey to their audience. Though some stressed the importance of the killing of Morris while others highlighted the capture of Cortez, one idea remained the same throughout all the corridos; he was an honourable man that “defended his right with his pistol in his hand.”

The final take away from the last half of the book was the use of the imperfect verb tense and the importance of creating a story that envelopes the listener completely. The imperfect tense in Spanish conveys a repeated action or an action in progress in the past, whereas the preterite form states that the action has been completed. Though it would have been simple for ballad singers to use the preterite (as it usually has fewer syllables) they usually used the imperfect as it created a scene of continuous action, submerging the listener into the story. An example of this is “venían los americanos” compared to “vinieron los americanos.” The difference here is one translates to “the Americans were coming” while the other says “the Americans came.” The use of imperfect creates a developing narrative that the listener becomes a witness to, as it doesn’t simply recount a laundry list of things that have already been completed, but shows a story unraveling and unfolding right there in the local cantina, where El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez was being sung.

-Curtis HR

With His Pistol in His Hand II: Morality


When reading on the background and context of the corrido, I was somewhat intrigued by how morality is portrayed. The author gives the background information in the evolution of the corrido, as it was driven from the very action of Border Conflict. We come to know the agency of the Ballad maker. I find interesting how the choices made by these anonymous people shape the story of a hero, but ultimately how they shape the cultural representation of those that lived at the Border. I think this is where we find a “kink” in the corrido. There are several other examples of this ‘twisting/bending’ of morality.

Firstly, themes were imported from the Greater Mexico corrido tradition such as love tragedy and filial disobedience, the border ballads then evolved from this to their own “niche” of themes. Other aspects were also imported such as the dark brooding ballad and those that are more sentimental such as Mexican danzas. The kink I think begins when all of this is taken to shape the story of the Border. The ballad makers are the first to incorporate outlaws as heroes in the corridos. They are shaping conscience and morality. Previously Mexican corridos had been used to instill morality or religious beliefs, we see that with the border ballad the outlaws are painted as the hero.

Secondly, the author specified that these heroes are not to be thought of as Robin Hoods. Which for me seemed strange, because that was what I had thought in the first part of this book. The sense of justice/morality has been bent in this context. Paredes states the true character of a border outlaw by stating that they don’t “(…)repent on the scaffold in moralizing verses. They are quite frankly rogues – realistic, selfish, and usually unrepentant.” This is one of the “kinks” in the Border Ballad.
The ballad makers transform them into heroes by saying that their thieving and raiding is actually their survival in the fight against the Americans (painted as the antagonists). It is as if they were giving crimes such as smuggling and cheating a reputable character, even one to praise and admire.

Thirdly, there is kink in the context of these stories of the border. The author mentions towards the end of the book that the border ballads are shaped after Spanish models and that it resembles Castilian romance but that “the social and physical conditions were more like those of Scotland.” The author compares Scotland’s struggles to many of those faced by the Border people: they were on the losing side of the conflict, they were plagued many years by a smaller number of invaders, etc. The Scottish ballads are some of the best British ballads and they were on the losing side of border conflict. The same occurs on the Rio Grande, those on the losing side are the Border Mexicans, who wrote these ballads.

This comparison is interesting, it shows the psychology of a nation, where to make up for their losses and sufferings they sing about their robber ‘heroes’, those that stood up against their invaders in any shape or form. In a way, after losing their territory they take history into their own hands by writing these ballads that are passed down from generation to generation, of how their people stood up to the invader, when the Truth is very different. I think each nation finds ways to cope and retain their sovereignty when everything else might suggest otherwise.

With His Pistol in His Hand II: Morality


When reading on the background and context of the corrido, I was somewhat intrigued by how morality is portrayed. The author gives the background information in the evolution of the corrido, as it was driven from the very action of Border Conflict. We come to know the agency of the Ballad maker. I find interesting how the choices made by these anonymous people shape the story of a hero, but ultimately how they shape the cultural representation of those that lived at the Border. I think this is where we find a “kink” in the corrido. There are several other examples of this ‘twisting/bending’ of morality.

Firstly, themes were imported from the Greater Mexico corrido tradition such as love tragedy and filial disobedience, the border ballads then evolved from this to their own “niche” of themes. Other aspects were also imported such as the dark brooding ballad and those that are more sentimental such as Mexican danzas. The kink I think begins when all of this is taken to shape the story of the Border. The ballad makers are the first to incorporate outlaws as heroes in the corridos. They are shaping conscience and morality. Previously Mexican corridos had been used to instill morality or religious beliefs, we see that with the border ballad the outlaws are painted as the hero.

Secondly, the author specified that these heroes are not to be thought of as Robin Hoods. Which for me seemed strange, because that was what I had thought in the first part of this book. The sense of justice/morality has been bent in this context. Paredes states the true character of a border outlaw by stating that they don’t “(…)repent on the scaffold in moralizing verses. They are quite frankly rogues – realistic, selfish, and usually unrepentant.” This is one of the “kinks” in the Border Ballad.
The ballad makers transform them into heroes by saying that their thieving and raiding is actually their survival in the fight against the Americans (painted as the antagonists). It is as if they were giving crimes such as smuggling and cheating a reputable character, even one to praise and admire.

Thirdly, there is kink in the context of these stories of the border. The author mentions towards the end of the book that the border ballads are shaped after Spanish models and that it resembles Castilian romance but that “the social and physical conditions were more like those of Scotland.” The author compares Scotland’s struggles to many of those faced by the Border people: they were on the losing side of the conflict, they were plagued many years by a smaller number of invaders, etc. The Scottish ballads are some of the best British ballads and they were on the losing side of border conflict. The same occurs on the Rio Grande, those on the losing side are the Border Mexicans, who wrote these ballads.

This comparison is interesting, it shows the psychology of a nation, where to make up for their losses and sufferings they sing about their robber ‘heroes’, those that stood up against their invaders in any shape or form. In a way, after losing their territory they take history into their own hands by writing these ballads that are passed down from generation to generation, of how their people stood up to the invader, when the Truth is very different. I think each nation finds ways to cope and retain their sovereignty when everything else might suggest otherwise.

With His Pistol in His Hand II

paredes_coverThe second half of Américo Paredes’s ”With His Pistol in His Hand” consists of a painstaking analysis of the corrido “Gregorio Cortez.” After a discussion of the history of the corrido genre as a whole, and its relation to other genres of popular Mexican music such as the romance or the décima, Paredes gives us the text of the ballad itself, in multiple versions and variants. One is a printed broadside from Mexico City, published in 1925 but probably written very shortly after the incidents it describes, in August or September 1901; although the music for this version is lost, Paredes tells us that it is not in fact a border ballad, and offers it mostly for the sake of comparison with the versions that are. Eight variants are transcriptions of performances, in one case of a record from 1920 and in almost all the other cases of “field recordings” made by Paredes himself of singers, both young and old, male and female, in the mid-1950s. Finally, one of the versions of the ballad–which is also the longest of them all–is Paredes’s own reconstruction of what the song might have looked (or sounded) like in its original incarnation, or at least in its very early stages. Having presented us with this wealth of primary material, Paredes goes on to analyze it, in all its variations, stanza by stanza and practically line by line. He has a detailed discussion of such elements as metre, stress, and syllable count; of verb tenses and conjunctions, and the use of words such as “ya” and “y”; and of imagery and language, including the peculiarities of border Spanish that the corrido reproduces.

In short, for a song that in Ramón Ayala’s rendition, for instance, lasts all of three minutes and twenty-four seconds, Paredes really goes to town. Indeed, the ratio between the length of the text to be interpreted here and the number of words expended in its interpretation and commentary is quite extraordinary: a corrido that in its longest (reconstructed) version comprises 28 four-line stanzas covering four pages is subject to around 100 pages of interpretation. But all this makes the book’s key point: that we should take such texts seriously.

Paredes does not exactly claim that the corrido is literary, as indeed strictly it is not if we define “literature” as written or printed matter. Not that this is the definition that Paredes employs: the version of the ballad that is printed (the Mexico City broadside) he repeatedly describes as “pseudoliterary,” apparently because of its style, which abandons “the corrido stanza [. . .] in favor of the literary redondilla”; the result is “awkwardness and dullness. [. . .] The reader who knows no Spanish may not appreciate to the full the scantiness of inspiration of the broadside” (182, 183). By contrast, “The maker of the Border corrido makes no effort to be original or literary, and by staying within the ballad traditions of his people he succeeds in composing in a natural and often a forceful style” (183).

While Paredes is not explicit about the basis for his judgements of aesthetic success, more than once he praises the ballad for its “vigor” (207, 209, 224), for its “simplicity of diction and [. . .] dramatic style” that avoids “verbal adornments” (219). Where the “pseudoliterary broadside [. . . prefers] the highest sounding word,” Border ballads “are composed in the language that the rancheros use every day” (219). And yet at the same time Paredes is keen to locate the corrido within an extensive and quite distinguished transnational tradition that dates back as far as the Spanish Middle Ages. In other words, it is precisely in that it does not strive for literary value (as does the broadside) that the Border ballad becomes a legitimate object of study and can be treated with the care and attention usually reserved for canonical literary texts.

Hence the comparisons with, for instance, romances dedicated to El Cid: “In response to conditions similar to those which produced the romance in Spain, the dormant, half-forgotten romance tradition in America revived in the corrido” (245). Moreover, not only does the Border corrido revive and gain (perhaps unconscious) inspiration from this venerable lineage, Paredes is also keen to underscore that it is far from derivative; a ballad such as “Gregorio Cortez” also adds something new and distinctive to this tradition. It “created some conventions of its own, conventions related to the border conflict which was its environment.” It initiates, in other words, a new set of aesthetic and cultural developments, which are then later taken up by the “Greater Mexican corrido tradition, which does not begin until ten years after El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez” (240).

In sum, however much Paredes wishes to mark the Border ballad’s distance from a literary self-consciousness that he sees as forced and un-natural (“pseudoliterary”), he is also keen to demonstrate that it is far more than the simple reflection of social reality or documentation of events and attitudes that mattered to the subaltern peoples of the Border. It is a creative contribution to a long-standing cultural genre. As such, the justification for its study is as much aesthetic as it is political or sociological.

With his pistol in his hand (II): The corrido and the culture of resistance

“Though it flourished independently of newspapers or other written material, it existed side by side with them” (Chapter VIII, p.245). This remark in the last chapter demonstrates the need to multiply the types of sources used to study the history and social structures of a region. Indeed, if newspapers (or court decisions) are crucial primary sources for reconstructing a historical event, as shown in Chapter III of the book, the population’s productions about this event, in this case a Corrido, reveal its significance for local communities. The fact that this corrido survived the event and the death of its main character shows that this form of oral folklore is a central element in the formation of Mexican American culture along the lower Rio Grande. The second part of the book, devoted to the structure of the Corrido, emphasizes that this form of border corrido represents a diffuse and silent culture of resistance to assimilation.

I would like to build on some of the elements highlighted by Paredes in Chapter VII concerning the structure of El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez.

  1. The Narrative

The Corrido is primarily narrative, but it differs from Mexican Broadside, which focuses on sensational elements. Instead, the border corrido uses a rather simple vocabulary and a direct style with few images. The objective is therefore to tell a story that reflects the everyday life of the Mexican American. The changes brought about by the variants analyzed by the author is a way for the corrido maker to emphasize the crucial characteristics of this daily life. We can group the variants into two broad categories, namely the variant that focuses on the events that led to Morris’ death, or the variants that tell in detail about Cortez’ surrender. The first represents the clash of North American and Mexican cultures along the lower Rio Grande, a clash that led to the discrimination of the minority by the majority. The second is the symbol of an obvious and predetermined end, with Mexicans unable to resist because they are outnumbered by better equipped Americans.

This story, mainly symbolic, expresses the tension and resentment between the Anglos- and Mexico-Tejanos. The fact that the story underlines the permanent injustice suffered by the latter and their powerlessness to oppose this “state of affairs” indicates that the corrido is an anonymous means of asserting their right as a people. The corrido becomes a protective disguise in their public and private relations with North Americans. It is a form of active but silent resistance, namely a counterweight to the domination of English-speaking culture.

  1. The syllable-supplying devices

The author emphasizes the functional use of syllable-supplying devices. Two basic elements catch my attention. First, the poets prefer to use the imperfect rather than the preterit in order to emphasize the intensity of the action. Second, singers have made extensive use of the “y” to put the vocal apparatus in the right position for singing and to help them get into the proper mood of tense absorption of the ballad. This demonstrates that the corrido is a way to tell a serious and dramatic story and to emphasize the tension of that drama.

Thus, the intensity of Corrido reflects the fact that this folk song is a form of revolt against the racial attitudes of the time. It then becomes the only weapon of the weak to confront the domination of the strong.

  1. The language

The language used in the variants of Corrido Cortez is also a sign of the formation of this culture of resistance. First of all, it should be noted that the Anglo-American enemies are not named. There is therefore confusion between their ethnicity and their identity because of their symbolic role in the corrido. This confusion reveals the construction of the figure of the enemy in which his dignity as an individual is denied. Secondly, the use of the English equivalent of the Spanish noun, in order to give a more precise meaning to the Spanish world, represents an appropriation of the enemy’s culture in order to affirm the Mexican-Americans’ own identity. Consequently, the Mexican-American identity is not destroyed by this clash of cultures but, on the contrary, it is strengthened by an appropriation of the tools of assimilation.

Week 4—With a Pistol in His Hand (part ii)

So as I proceed through Paredes’ With a Pistol in His Hand, two things come to mind. The first is the idea of various versions of an event as a manufactured reality and the second is the evolution of the English lexicon with words such as ‘booty’.

Manufactured Reality
What I mean by this is how various people can experience or witness an event or an occurrence and each of those people can relay their experience in a completely different way. We have the events of Gregorio Cortéz’ life, what he did, who he shot and when and the events of him being chased or pursued by the Rangers. Only Cortez and those who were present at the time of these occurrences know what happened. Without a doubt they shared this experience with people they thought may be interested and those people added some spice for intrigue, based on personal style, and then relayed it too a further audience. Lather, rinse, repeat and we end up with something like this ballad.

Does that make each version of the ballad invalid? Absolutely not. But I like what Paredes has done, lining them up in parallel so that they can each be analysed for what they are, who wrote them and from whose perspective we are being told the tale.

This makes me think again about the stories that circulate on the news these days, whether it’s that Orange Turd down south saying something ridiculous based on some version of the truth his henchmen have relayed to him, or perhaps it is some other far flung tale that makes us wonder. The media is in a unique position to take facts and manipulate them to create intrigue, which results in viewership and ultimately sponsorship from companies seeking advertising space. Perhaps one of the companies doesn’t like the spin put on a story a media outlet covers, so they are obligated to report through the eyes of those who pay them biweekly. In the end, where is our news coming from and at what point do we start thinking for ourselves?

Booty call
So I was reading along, minding my own business, when I came across the following line: “Indians descended on the whole Mexican frontier, armed and supplied by American traders who accepted their booty in exchange for arms, whiskey, and other articles” (133). At first, I just blindly read through it, and as I started the following sentence, my eyes wandered up a line for a moment and I thought I saw the word ‘booty’. I cleaned my glasses and replaced them on my face, to see that the word ‘booty’ was indeed part of the text. Well I’ll be. What does ‘booty’ mean? I only know it to mean one thing thanks to the superfluous nature of the Kardashians posteriors on TMZ and the Buzzfeed articles that appear on my Facebook feed.

So I looked ‘booty’ up on the Cambridge online dictionary, and this is what I found: “any valuable things or money stolen by an army at war or by thieves”. I chuckled a little, rereading the line in the text again and it made more sense. I’ve only ever heard ‘booty’ in reference to a bum or calls. So then I started thinking about words that are used today that used to mean something different (or more wholesome) in my parents or grandparents generations. Even you young whippersnappers in our class use words that I have no idea what they mean. I guess I did too when I was younger, I just don’t remember what they are. I wonder how María Ruiz de Burton or Américo Paredes interpret some of our euphemisms that are more recent. My mother still has an issue with calling milk ‘homo’. In light of this bodacious line in the text, here is a song that came to mind. It’s a rather clever cover done by the Postmodern Jukebox of Meghan Trainor’s “All About the Bass”.