Learning Objectives 

Students will: 

• Analyze the elements of traditional corridos from the Mexican Revolution.
• Discuss the Porfirio Díaz regime in Mexico and Díaz's ties to the United States.
• Describe how corridos communicated news and provide a greater understanding of tensions among revolutionary leaders who sought the presidency. 
• Research a current event as the basis for subject matter for their corridos. 
• Write original corridos based on the traditional form.
• Present original corridos to an audience.

Standards Alignment

National Core Arts StandardsNational Core Arts Standards

Common Core State StandardsCommon Core State Standards

Recommended Student Materials

Editable Documents: Before sharing these resources with students, you must first save them to your Google account by opening them, and selecting “Make a copy” from the File menu. Check out Sharing Tips or Instructional Benefits when implementing Google Docs and Google Slides with students.

• Breaking News!
• What is a Corrido?
• Lyrics: Corrido: “Tiempos Amargos”
• Lyrics: “Corrido Historia y Muerte del Gral. Francisco Villa”
• Lyrics: “El Cuartelazo”
• Lyrics: “San Salinas”
• Lyrics: “Sonocal”
• Rubric: Corridos

Music

• “Tiempo Amargos”
• “Corrido Historia y Muerte del Gral. Francisco Villa”
• “El Cuartelazo”
• “San Salinas”
• “Sonocol”

Teacher Background

Teachers should familiarize themselves with the corrido genre and the Mexican Revolution Resources.

Student Prerequisites 

Students should have background knowledge on the Mexican Revolution.

Accessibility Notes

Modify handouts as needed and allow extra time for task completion. 

Engage

1. Divide students into groups of five and number them off. Tell students who are assigned number 1 that they will be given some very important news that must be delivered to student number 5 in their group. But before student 5 can hear the news, the news must first travel from student 1 to student 2 to student 3, and so on. Students will have to memorize the news and cannot write anything down—just like the game “Telephone.”

2. Have students spread out across the length of the classroom in numerical order like a relay race. Explain the instructions to the students. All the “1’s” will receive the breaking news on a folded piece of paper and read it when the teacher says, “Go!” They will be given two minutes to read the news and do their best to memorize as many details as they can. When the two minutes are up, they must fold the paper up again and return it to the teacher. Each student must "spread the news" to the next person in their group until the news spreads to the “5’s.” When all “5’s” have heard the news, each “5” will be given a piece of paper. On the count of three, the “5’s” in each group will write down the news as best as they can. Tell your class that the news will contain important specific details, so they'll need to pay careful attention as the news spreads. The group that has written down the most accurate news wins.

3. Once students understand the instructions, share the Breaking News to the “1’s.” 

4. After the activity is completed, remind students that important news was spread by word of mouth before newspapers were widely printed and distributed. Explain that telling a story through lyrics was a way for people to remember the details. Point out that we could each sing along to a number of different songs without looking at the lyrics, but would have a hard time reciting the same amount of stories by memory. Tell students that the corrido, a particular type of song developed in Mexico in the 1800s and still popular today, was often used to communicate information about current events.

Build

1. Share the resource, What is a Corrido?, and discuss the characteristics of the corrido form. Tell students that they will be looking at corridos that provide information about the dictatorship of the former Mexican president, Porfirio Díaz, and other key figures during the Mexican Revolution.

2. Introduce and share the lyrics to the Corrido: “Tiempos Amargos” (Bitter Times). Students can also listen to an excerpt of the corrido, “Tiempo Amargos.”

3. Ask students what information they gathered about Porfirio Díaz from the corrido. Tell students that “Tiempos Amargos” reveals just how awful people were treated under Díaz’s regime. Review the reasons why most of the population was living in poverty while only a few in powerful positions were wealthy (i.e., Díaz’s ties to U.S. corporations). Ask students: What are examples of injustice from the corrido lyrics? What does the “pantalón” (pants) symbolize? Discuss how the act of buttoning someone else’s pants reflects how oppressed the people were under the Díaz regime.

4. Discuss what students can learn from a song that they might not be able to learn from other forms of recorded history (books, movies, etc.). For instance, personal narratives might include emotional responses to then-current events. Discuss why this may provide a greater understanding of the effects of significant historical events, such as war or tragedy.

5. Share the lyrics to “Corrido Historia y Muerte del Gral. Francisco Villa.” Tell students the corrido is about legendary Mexican revolutionary leader, Francisco Villa, who attempted to overthrow Porfirio Díaz. Play an excerpt of the recording, “Corrido Historia y Muerte del Gral. Francisco Villa,” and note the less-than-perfect sound quality of the recording. Tell students that the recording was made on August 31, 1923, just sixty days after Francisco Villa’s assassination. 

6. Ask students to discuss what they learned from the Francisco Villa corrido in comparison to what they learned from books or media. Discuss how Villa is represented as an infallible hero in this corrido, but remind students that Villa was the leader of one of several factions who were fighting for presidential control (another was led by Emiliano Zapata). Many corridos have commemorated a particular leader (such as former U.S. President John F. Kennedy) with just as much praise as the corrido about Villa. Ask students: What instances in the corrido reveal one-sided opinions?

7. Share the lyrics, “El Cuartelazo,” a corrido about revolutionary leader Francisco Madero who successfully defeated Díaz in 1911 and was elected president. Ask students: Can you detect any bias in the corrido? (Focus on the 8th and 9th stanzas.) When Madero became president he was challenged by both Francisco Villa and Emiliano Zapata. Zapata controlled the state of Morelos, where he took matters into his own hands and divided the land among the peasants, thereby ousting the estate owners. Both Zapata and Madero were assassinated, in 1917 and 1913, respectively. Political instability continued after Victoriana Huerta’s coup d’etat against Huerta in1913 and through Venustiano Carranza’s presidency, which began when he overthrew Huerta in 1913. Play an excerpt from “El Cuartelazo.”

8. Discuss how personal bias affects the re-telling of history, and how there are at least two sides to every war and every story.

Apply

1. Tell students that they will now become corridistas (composers of corridos). Review the Rubric: Corridos with students. Have students research a topic of their choice. Challenge students to write original corridos about a historical, current event, or continue with the Mexican Revolution theme. 

2. Students can explore original corridos from the winners of the Bilingual Corrido Contest in Arizona, a program conducted by the University of Arizona Poetry Center. “San Salinas” by Adolfo Salazar, criticicizes Vicente Fox, the elected Mexican president from 2000-2006. Students can listen to the excerpt “San Salinas” as they follow along with the lyrics. “Sonocal” by Eleuterio Cortez, tells the story of a young man who was tragically killed by people he considered his friends. Students can listen to an excerpt of “Sonocol” as they follow along with the lyrics. 

3. Allow time for students to research a topic and gather information. Provide feedback to students as they write their corrido and allow time for peer editing. 

Reflect 

1. Organize a corrido concert, asking students to read the lyrics of their songs aloud, sing, or perform them. Encourage students to use instruments if they like (i.e., guitar, accordion). 

2. Assess the students’ knowledge of corridos with the Rubric: Corridos. 

Corridos

“Tiempo Amargos”

“Corrido Historia y Muerte del Gral. Francisco Villa”

“El Cuartelazo”

Adolfo Salazar - “San Salinas”

Eleuterio Cortez - “Sonocol”