Distribution of 500 free copies of "Corridos y Tragedias de la Frontera"
A grant from the Rex Foundation funded the distribution of ca. 500 free copies of the double CD "Corridos y Tragedias de la Frontera" (CD 7019/20), produced by Arhoolie Records, to about 500 public libraries throughout the Southwest where these ballads originated.

This historic double CD collection from "The Golden Era of the Recorded Corrido: 1928-1937" presents twenty-seven examples of the Mexican Border Ballad tradition. These commercially recorded story songs document and chronicle celebrated heroes and events, as well as minor fictional characters and folk tales. The corrido or ballad tradition has evolved over the past 150 years to become one of the most vital components of Mexican and Mexican-American popular culture and literature, and continues to thrive to this day on both sides of the border. The versions presented in the collection are in most cases the first recordings ever made of these corridos, and are sung mostly by regional male duets who lived and worked along the border, with guitar accompaniment. The accompanying 164-page illustrated book with notes by folklorist Phillip Sonnichsen details the history and circumstances surrounding most of these classic stories.

The enclosed book also includes complete transcriptions and translations of all the corridos along with short biographies of some of the singers. Sound restoration of the original 78 discs was performed by George Morrow to remove extraneous noises inherent in the old pressings. Great care, however, has been taken to preserve the original ambience of these historic discs.