Corridos of 9/11: Mexican Ballads as Commemorative Practice

Abstract

In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the makers of Mexican ballads known as corridos created a rich body of narrative songs commemorating and commenting on these events. In this essay, I examine these “9/11 corridos” and the dynamics of their cultural production in a zone of what I term “commemorative practice,” taking note of stylistic and functional features that link this specific corpus to the larger corrido tradition, and ascertaining the range of attitudes they express toward the events of 9/11 themselves. I propose that we regard the 9/11 corridos as mediated ballads of mass communication, performed on a global stage and addressing issues of international consequence, a far journey from their point of origin as local ballads responding to matters of primarily local and regional interest.