Mexican narrative ballads, rooted in Spanish romances, corridos tell adventurous legends and historical tales of love, crime, and heroic drama. Some may contain humor or relate a humorous story. Corridos are often improvised, although traditional ballad-type songs (4-line stanzas with a simple melody) are also sung. Guitar or mariachi instruments accompany the singing of corridos and may provide a tornada, an instrumental refrain in place of a burden. Many corridos have irregular meters and asymmetrical phrasing.

Paredes wrote his dissertation on "El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez" and compiled a collection of corridos.

Jaime Nicolopulos of the Spanish department at the University of Texas offers the following corrido pages:

• Corridos de Texas
  • Part I of Gregorio Cortez Spanish text with a photo of Cortez (dark and hard to resolve) and of a photo of Los Trovadores Regionales (Pedro Rocha and Lupe Martínez); this page also has a link to the Américo Paredes Memorial at the University of Texas website.
  • Part II of Gregorio Cortez Spanish text with 1913 photo of Cortez, which is easier to see at bottom of page. Bibliography and discography.
  • More about Gregorio Cortez English text by Philip Sonnichsen
• Corridos de Revolucion
• Corridos de desastres
• Corrido Related Links
• Bibliography about corridos

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• Brief biography
• On Line Resources