Corrido is a popular narrative song and poetry form of the mestizo Mexican cultural area (which includes the Southern states of USA, taken from Mexican sovereignship in the midst and late 19th. Century). Derived along the 18th. century from Spanish "romance", among other popular forms brought from Europe, in its most known form consists of 1) a salutation from the singer and prologue to the story; 2) the story itself; 3) a moral and a farewell from the singer. Mestizo (Portuguese, Mestiço; Canadian French, Métis: from Late Latin mixtcius, from Latin mixtus, past participle of miscre, to mix) is a term of Spanish origin used to designate the peoples of mixed European and Amerindian racial strain inhabiting the region spanning the Americas, from the Canadian prairies in the north... Romance or romantic can refer to: Romance (genre) - a style of Medieval narrative fiction. ...

Until the arrival and success of electronic mass-media (midst-20th. century), the corrido served in México as the main informational and educational mean, even with subversive purposes, due to its apparent linguistic and musical simplicity, proper for oral transmission. After the spreading of radio and television, the genre has evolved into a new stage, still in process of maturity, despite most scholars consider that corrido is dead or agonizing since then (see affirmations of Vicente T. Mendoza, _El corrido mexicano_, 1954). This article is about the computer software framework. ...

The earliest living specimens of corrido are transcultured versions of Spanish romances or European tales, mainly about disgraced or idealized love, or religious topics. These, that include (among others) "La Martina" and "La Delgadina", show the same basic stilistic features of the mainstream of later corridos (1/2 or 3/4 tempo and "verso menor" lyric composing, it means, verses of eight or less phonetic syllabs, grouped in strophes of six or less verses).

It would be until the Independence war (1810-1821), through the Mexican Revolution (1910-1921) and the religious and cacical clashes (1926-1934) originated by the new Establishment that the genre flourished and acquired its so-known and betold "epic" tones, along with the three-stepped narrative structure told before, producing the gross of the known living specimens, which relate to revolutionary, religious or social leaders, the same as their makings or even their "martyrdom". The Mexican Revolution was a violent social and cultural movement, colored by socialist, nationalist, and anarchist tendencies that began with the popular rejection of dictator Porfirio Díaz Mori in 1910 and culminated in the promulgation of a new constitution seven years later. ... Historically, a martyr is a person who dies for his or her religious faith. ...

With the consolidation of "Presidencialismo" (the politic Establishment that came after Mexican Revolution) and the success of electronic mass-media, the corrido lost the most of its informational role, becoming part of a folklorist cult on one branch, and on a second one, the voice of the new subversives: oppressed workers, drug growers or traffickers; leftist activists, emigrated farmworkers (mainly to USA)... This one is what scholars call the "decaying" stage of the genre, which tends to erase the stilystic or structural characteristics of "revolutionary" or traditional corrido, without a clear and unified clue of its evolution. This is mainly signified by the "narcocorrido", egocentric ballads paid by drug smugglers to anonymous and almost illiterate composers (more about this asserts in Spanish_Wikipedia (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BAsica_mexicana_moderna_y_contempor%C3%A1nea)).

In mestizo-Mexican cultural area those three variants of corrido (transcultured romances, "Revolution corrido" and the modern one) are samely alive and sung, along with brother narrative-popular genres, such as the "valona" of Michoacán state, the "son arribeño" of the Sierra Gorda (Guanajuato, Hidalgo and Querétaro states) and others. Its vitality and flexibility permit that nowadays exist original corrido lyrics built on non-Mexican musical genres, such as blues and ska, and even non-Spanish lyrics, like the ones composed or translated by Mexican indigenous communities or by the "chicano" people in USA, in English or "Spanglish". Valona is a popular narrative song and poetry form of the Mexican state of Michoacán. ... Blues is a vocal and instrumental musical form which evolved from African American spirituals, shouts, work songs and chants and has its earliest stylistic roots in West Africa. ... This page is about ska, the musical style. ... A Chicano is a person of Mexican descent born in the United States. ... For the Adam Sandler movie, see Spanglish (movie) Spanglish is a name used to refer to a range of language-contact phenomena, primarily in the speech of the Hispanic population of the USA, which is exposed to both Spanish and English. ...

Soon, further comments on the linguistic characterization of corrido. Until then, here is a PDF_document_in_Spanish (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagen:Anteproyecto.pdf) by the same author with complementary information and a research proposal.

Notes on its musical characteristics are welcome.