Contexto Histórico del “Corrido de Ezequiel Rodríguez”
Corrido’s Recording
This corrido was 1st recorded after WWII in the 40s when a lot of small recording companies (for example, Orfeo and Falcon) appeared in Mexico. It was part of what was known as a disquera independiente. These corridos were very local and authentic, the opposite of the movie corridos from the same time period. They were not investigated nor are they well known because of their appearance at the same time as these movie corridos that were not authentic but commercialized. Paredes hardly even mentions this corrido in his extensive work on border corridos. Many people considered them one and the same which was not the case. This subgenre of corridos is important because it shows the corrido as still being part of a tradition that is alive and well in a community during a time when many thought that the corridor was dead.
The recording of version 1 of this corrido is the earliest recording featuring two artists who would later become the famous duo Los Alegres de Teran, the first superstar group in Mexican regional music. The duo was composed of Tomas Ortiz, on the 12-string guitar known as bajo sexto, and Eugenio Abrego, who's backup accordion on this record. Their big hits from the '50s are on the Falcon label, based in McAllen, Texas. The 3rd version of this corrido was done by them during this period. Their early recordings on the Orfeo label in the late 40s, based in Monterrey, Mexico, are very rare. This includes version 1 of this corrido. The Alegres de Teran were from General Teran. After they recorded this corrido it was recorded many times.
Corrido’s Content
The characters in the 3 versions of the corrido are as follows with a historical description of each:
*Ezequiel Rodríguez-He was a pistolero in the Guardias Blancas gang. He was the best and most famous pistolero in the group.
Los campesinos e indígenas que han luchado por recuperar un pedazo de tierra en la reforma agraria de Cárdenas, son los que más han sufrido la represión de cuerpos policíacos ilegales como la banda de Guardias Blancas. Los grandes finqueros y terratenientes (ganaderos) son los que más han echado mano de este tipo cuerpos ilegales.
Pistoleros:
Cuando un terrateniente necesita de una guardia personal y domiciliaria, normalmente recurre a contratar a 2, 3 o más personas particulares, preparadas principalmente en el manejo de armas cortas y que lo acompañan a cualquier parte. Cuando están en los ranchos o fincas, normalmente es visible el grupo de personas: colocados siempre a su alrededor o en los corredores de su domicilio, a veces andan a caballo para penetrar al campo; se distinguen por usar sombrero, pantalón vaquero, lentes obscuros, chamarras largas o chaleco para esconder la pistola. Cuando entran a la ciudad, la mayoría de las veces traen carro personal y a prudente distancia vigilan al patrón, o uno o dos para no hacerse tan visibles. Muchas veces los patrones les ponen el sobrenombre de “sabuesos”, refiriéndose a la clase de perros que solo sirven para la cacería. Su trabajo es cazar a los que atenten contra el patrón o contra sus bienes. Algunos terratenientes utilizan para esta función a familias enteras.
Guardias Blancas:
El nombre de guardias blancas es retomado de la ex-URSS. Después del triunfo de la revolución de octubre de 1917, el gobierno soviético optó por repartir la tierra a quien la necesitaba, pero se encontró con la resistencia de la policía particular de los propietarios que se les llamaba guardias blancas; entonces el gobierno optó por combatirlas a través de las guardias rojas. En algunos lugares las oficializaron por medio de un decreto que permitía a los ganaderos portar armas y contratar “policías particulares”. El poder civil en algunas regiones lo ha mantenido este tipo de ganaderos y terratenientes, que han gozado de certificados de agraria no afectada. Protegieron mucha tierra. Mas tarde cambia la política y se intenta desarticular a este tipo de finqueros tradicionales, porque representan un obstáculo para la puesta en marcha del Tratado de Libre Comercio, a cambio de fortalecer un grupo de ganaderos modernizados, que vendrían a ser en este caso los ganaderos de la Costa que no utilizan pistoleros, ni guardias blancas.
Cuando se unen los grupos de pistoleros de varias familias terratenientes a nivel regional o municipal, se organizan para adiestrarse en el manejo de armas largas y de alto calibre, contratan por cierto tiempo a campesinos del PRI y de la CNC para defender las tierras tomadas, hostigar, asesinar y atacar a campesinos; en otras ocasiones para aniquilar a cierto grupo de poder que les estorba o compite en negocios ilícitos o por disputas de poder.
Basically, they were the rich land owners’ personal armies that were formed in the 1920s to repel any effort to execute the agrarian reform of Cardenas. The soldiers belonging to the Mexican Army gave armed support, weapons and training to them, the rich landowners' personal armies.
*Anselmo Garcia- was a policeman in the city. He was thus a very respected man. He was also an agrarista. This means that he supported the agrarian reform of Cardenas. If you go to the Corridos Agraristas homepage and click on the Historical Context link this will give you a sense of what this cause was all about. One of the interesting points made in one of the versions of this corrido was that the dance that Ezequiel went to that was filled with agraristas was set up for the sole purpose of killing Ezequiel. The two groups, Guardias Blancas and agraristas, were very divided and this caused tons of conflict like that which we read about in this corrido.
*Atadeo-He was the boss of the Guardias Blancas gang.
*Lozada-They think that this was a sienda that was called Lozada.
There are 2 years mentioned in the 3 versions. One is 1941 and the other one is 1939. They believe that the year 1941 is the correct year.
“Corrido de Ezequiel Rodríguez”