The sparks of social revolution, the spreading of ideas, and the simple documentation of history can all be partly attributed to the music of a culture.
Corridos, or Spanish ballads, are no exception.
"Corridos sin Fronteras: A New World Ballad Tradition," the latest exhibition at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, will explore the history and influence of the ballad tradition throughout the United States and Mexico over the past 200 years.
"Corridos sin Fronteras" (Ballads Without Borders) not only examines the tradition, but recreates the progression of the corrido through photographs, posters, instruments, vintage and modern recordings and a variety of other memorabilia.
"By nature, ballads express and reflect community opinions and values," said Enrique Lamadrid, UNM professor of Spanish and Portuguese. "If they do not succeed in capturing the imagination and curiosity of the community, they simply do not survive for long. The analysis of ballads of other eras reveals a lot about the communities that enjoyed them."
Corridos were used to tell stories, and the themes and plots of these stories were often taken from actual events.
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"The favorite themes of corridos remain the same," Lamadrid said. "Whenever a newsworthy, sensational or historic event occurs that has symbolic meaning or resonance in the Hispanic community, corridos will be composed to tell the story. There are corridos about warfare, natural disasters, social violence, bandits, astronauts, smugglers, union struggles, star-crossed lovers, etc."
The earliest ballads were sung a cappella, but later ballads were accompanied by the guitar, still the most commonly heard instrument on corrido recordings.
"In larger ensembles it may combine with the violin - historically in northern New Mexico," Lamadrid said.
Technology has also played a pivotal role in shaping the ballad tradition. Corridos have been recorded on every sound medium invented including wax cylinders, acetate disks, vinyl disks, wire, magnetic tape, CDs and MP3s, all of which will be displayed at the exhibit.
One portion of the exhibit, titled "Nuevo Mexico, ®hasta cuando?" (New Mexico, How Much Longer?) is solely dedicated to the ballad tradition in New Mexico. Curated by Lamadrid, this portion includes ballads about women's suffrage, mining and land grants.
"New Mexico was settled much earlier than Texas or California," Lamadrid said. "Therefore we have a 400-year record of popular ballads. We also have other historic genres of narrative ballads here, such as the Indita ballad, which is sung largely by women with the theme of intercultural conflict."
The tradition of corridos is constantly renewing and reinventing itself, Lamadrid said.
"Spanish balladry is as popular now as it was in medieval times," he said. "Narrative ballads have a lot to tell about a people's sense of their own history. The vitality and spirit of a culture is heard clearly in its folk music."
