REMEMBER THE CROSSERS: U.S.-MEXICAN IMMIGRATION AND THE CONTEMPORARY CORRIDO TRADITION

Abstract

The border between the United States and Mexico is today and, since the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, a place of passage of people and ideas. Immigration (legal and illegal) is, no doubt, an essential issue of the reality of this space. This event is definitely marking the relationship between the two countries as well as the identity of the inhabitants of this territory. Moreover, the border has become a culturally hybrid and permeable space, where very interesting artistic manifestations are being developed.

The border corrido, in particular, which emerged in the nineteenth century and has evolved both in terms of form and content to the present, is a clear example. The aim of this essay is to observe the way in which the migratory movement that occurs at the U.S-Mexico border is exposed in the artistic production of Los Tigres del Norte, one of the most influential contemporary corrido bands. Their songs reflect the expectations of immigrants, their suffering, etc., and eventually become the voice of the crossers, because, according Teodoro Bello, member of the band, corridos are “los hechos reales del pueblo.”