With His Pistol in His Hand II: Morality

When reading on the background and context of the corrido, I was somewhat intrigued by how morality is portrayed. The author gives the background information in the evolution of the corrido, as it was driven from the very action of Border Conflict. We come to know the agency of the Ballad maker. I find interesting how the choices made by these anonymous people shape the story of a hero, but ultimately how they shape the cultural representation of those that lived at the Border. I think this is where we find a “kink” in the corrido. There are several other examples of this ‘twisting/bending’ of morality.

Firstly, themes were imported from the Greater Mexico corrido tradition such as love tragedy and filial disobedience, the border ballads then evolved from this to their own “niche” of themes. Other aspects were also imported such as the dark brooding ballad and those that are more sentimental such as Mexican danzas. The kink I think begins when all of this is taken to shape the story of the Border. The ballad makers are the first to incorporate outlaws as heroes in the corridos. They are shaping conscience and morality. Previously Mexican corridos had been used to instill morality or religious beliefs, we see that with the border ballad the outlaws are painted as the hero.

Secondly, the author specified that these heroes are not to be thought of as Robin Hoods. Which for me seemed strange, because that was what I had thought in the first part of this book. The sense of justice/morality has been bent in this context. Paredes states the true character of a border outlaw by stating that they don’t “(…)repent on the scaffold in moralizing verses. They are quite frankly rogues – realistic, selfish, and usually unrepentant.” This is one of the “kinks” in the Border Ballad.

The ballad makers transform them into heroes by saying that their thieving and raiding is actually their survival in the fight against the Americans (painted as the antagonists). It is as if they were giving crimes such as smuggling and cheating a reputable character, even one to praise and admire.

Thirdly, there is kink in the context of these stories of the border. The author mentions towards the end of the book that the border ballads are shaped after Spanish models and that it resembles Castilian romance but that “the social and physical conditions were more like those of Scotland.” The author compares Scotland’s struggles to many of those faced by the Border people: they were on the losing side of the conflict, they were plagued many years by a smaller number of invaders, etc. The Scottish ballads are some of the best British ballads and they were on the losing side of border conflict. The same occurs on the Rio Grande, those on the losing side are the Border Mexicans, who wrote these ballads.

This comparison is interesting, it shows the psychology of a nation, where to make up for their losses and sufferings they sing about their robber ‘heroes’, those that stood up against their invaders in any shape or form. In a way, after losing their territory they take history into their own hands by writing these ballads that are passed down from generation to generation, of how their people stood up to the invader, when the Truth is very different. I think each nation finds ways to cope and retain their sovereignty when everything else might suggest otherwise.