What I found immensely interesting about this article was how similar the corridos are to the signifyin’ monkey tales. It seems like no matter which subculture you go to, they each have a sort of culturally significant tale to tell and pass down through their music. The interesting thing though, that specifically connects the corridos to the signifyin’ monkey tales is that these tales which relate to them often relate to the other subcultures which are passing down this music through these tales as well – and they also share a similar history as they “functioned almost exclusively as a storytelling form….[moving towards being] upbeat and danceable” (214.)
By serving “to link a population that was under constant cultural assault from the Anglo[s]” (217,) these tales showed the solidarity of these groups and how they were to make “any American tremble at his feet” (221.) Coming from the common man, all of these songs, whether made by Blacks or Mexicans illustrates how they felt like they had to resort to music to express their frustration at repression in a nonviolent way (even if the subject matter wasn’t rated PG.) However, we know that people outside of black culture listened to the signifyin’ monkey tales, but Wald didn’t get too into if Whites were listening to the corridos, something I’d be interested in exploring, but did succinctly illustrate how the corridos were attempts to hold on to culture in an Americanized world.
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