Book Examines Meaning of Mexican Ballads to Migrants

“”Corridos in Migrant Memory,” a new book by St. Lawrence University Assistant Professor of Global Studies Martha I. Chew Sanchez, examines the role of traditional Mexican ballads in shaping the cultural memories and identities of transnational Mexican groups.

Corridos are ballads particular to Mexican traditions that are used to analyze or recall a particular political, cultural and natural event important to the communities where they are performed. As part of the cultural memory, many of the most popular corridos express the immigrant experience: exploitation, surveillance and dehumanization stemming from racism and classism of the host country. The corrido helps Mexican immigrants in the United States to humanize, dignify and make sense of their transnational experiences as racial minorities.”

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