The motivation that led me to create the Idaho Corrido Music Project was born of inspiration while translating the essay written by Boise State University Spanish professor, Dr. Maria Alicia Garza, entitled “Songs about Culture, History, and the Local News: Oral Tradition and the Mexican-American Corrido” included in the publication Latinos in Idaho: Celebrando Cultura, edited by Dr. Robert McCarl and published by the Idaho Humanities Council in 2003.
Ballads have been written in cultures all over the world and the form dates back to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The Mexican corrido was developed in the 1800s, regained popularity during the Mexican Revolution of 1910, and continues to be a popular genre in Hispanic communities. A corrido has its roots in oral tradition and it is a type of ballad using simple and ordinary speech that tells a real and profound story. This is the heart of the corrido.
As an educator and a lover of traditions, I have always been aware of the lack of educational materials in Idaho related to the Mexican culture. Translating Dr. Garza’s essay, I imagined how wonderful it would be to have a collection of corridos based on the essays I was holding to make it available to teachers to use as a supplement to their music, history, culture, and Spanish classes. To me, it made perfect sense to create the Idaho corrido project. I consulted with Rick Ardinger, Executive Director of the Idaho Humanities Council and with Terri Schorzman, Director of Boise City Arts & History Department and both encouraged me to pursue it.
Music was part of my life growing up in Chihuahua, Mexico. My father played the guitar and my siblings and I sang popular Mexican songs with him including some corridos. And even though I had never written a song until this project came along, I have always been fascinated by songs in general and the manner in which the melody matches its content. Songs, just like other art forms, carry a message, some more direct than others, and the corrido is an example of the latter.
I met Seattle musician and composer Juan Manuel Barco in 2006 at a National Association of Latino Arts and Culture conference in Portland, Oregon, where he gave a workshop. In Idaho, I had directed a project with the group Friends of Jesús Urquides which had just completed the book Jesús Urquides: Idaho’s Premier Muleteer written by Max Delgado, and I was excited about bringing to the forefront the history of the Latinos in Idaho and what a better way than the Mexican corrido! I had a chance to visit with Juan Manuel and asked him if he would be interested in coming to Idaho to inspire artists to put the history of the Latinos into music and poetry.
By 2009 the project had taken shape. I called Juan Manuel Barco with the good news and he agreed to come to Idaho the following year. Some of the people who had written essays in the book Celebrando Cultura: Latinos en Idaho, agreed to participate as an advisory board. Dr. Erol Jones, Professor Emeritus of History at Boise State University, and Kathleen Rubinow Hodges, then oral historian with the Idaho State Historical Society, were key members selecting some pertinent stories that would be worthy of a corrido. The Consulate of Mexico helped making arrangements with Boise State University to hold the first workshop on campus.
I began recruiting participants by word of mouth and radio interviews, and to my surprise a good number of musicians showed up to Juan Manuel Barco’s workshops in 2010. We held the second workshop in 2011 at the Hispanic Cultural Center in Nampa. The group composed over 25 corridos about Mexican cowboys, mule packers, and miners of the 1800s, about the experiences of Mexican railroaders and farm workers in the 1900s, and about the accomplishments of many Latinos during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
The project was done under the umbrella of the non-profit organization, Mujeres Unidas de Idaho. The Idaho Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities were the main sponsors for the project. Other supporters during our public presentations in 2010 and 2012 include: Boise City Arts & History Department, Consulate of Mexico in Boise, Dulce/Sweet Events & Consulting, Boise State University - Cultural and Ethnic Diversity Board & College of Social Studies and Public Affairs, Idaho Commission on the Arts & National Endowment for the Arts, Wells Fargo, the Idaho Latino Scholarship Association, BlakBook, Idaho Hispano, KWEI Spanish radio, the Hispanic Cultural Center, and individual contributors Irma Morin, Kirby Ortiz and Lucio Prado. The sponsors for this booklet and CDs are: The Idaho Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Simplot Company, Dulce/Sweet Events & Consulting, BlakBook, and individual contributor Leah Cruz.
For all of those involved, the Idaho Corrido Music Project was a unique experience. From the onset, all agreed that having recordings of songs and poems recognizing the influence of Mexican-Americans in Idaho’s economic and cultural development would be significant to all Idaho residents, but especially to the Latino community and its youth. We all know how important it is for people to see faces like their own and listen to stories about people like themselves in the annals of history. And with this thought in mind, it is an honor to present this booklet and the accompanying CDs to the Idaho community!
Enjoy!
Sincerely,
Ana María Nevárez-Schachtell.
Idaho Corrido Music Project Director.
