Various Artists – Heroes & Horses: Corridos From The Arizona-Sonora Borderlands

The Arizona-Sonora border is a long expanse of fragile ecosystems interrupted by less than a handful of legitimate border crossings surrounded by desperately poor and ramshackle villages. It’s also disrupted regularly, often tragically, by crossings of the illegitimate sort. The sheer inhospitality of the environment is enough to breed folk heroes by the dozens, and Mexican border dwellers on both sides have made high art of chronicling their exploits in song.

Much of the music known to the world only as “Mariachi” serves the same purpose as that of ancient ballads the world over. Part news magazine, part history book, the body of border “corridos” documents actual events, colored by the prevailing values of the culture. In Heroes & Horses, folklorist Big Jim Griffith, a giant of a man beloved on both sides of the border for his gentle, passionate concern for preserving the region’s cultural artifacts, has gathered local corridos from throughout the 20th century.

Griffith eschewed corridos on topics like the Mexicans’ struggles for social justice in the U.S., the dangers of border crossing, and the drug trade; songs about such subjects are widely available commercially. Instead, he’s focused on popular older themes.

Because corridos are learned via records and live performance, Heroes & Horses may help assure the future of some of the most popular Sonoran corridos, including “Joaquin Murrieta”, about a local’s adventures in the California Gold Rush; “Maquina 501”, about an everyday hero who saved a mining town from a runaway train in 1907; “El Moro De Cumpas”, about a famous horse race in Agua Prieta; and “La Carcel de Cananea”, about a country boy’s visit to a border town. Other tracks address incidents in the Mexican revolution, and a particularly moving one relates a deadly episode in border tensions heightened when the U.S. entered into World War I.

For those who don’t understand Spanish, translations are included on CD-ROM, and the liner notes feature Griffith’s wonderfully documented histories of each corrido. The spirit and passion of the content is clear enough in the music itself, which is played with enough mastery and energy to move music fans of every stripe.