Felipe Angeles was born June 13, 1869 in Molango, Hidalgo. He began attendance at the Colegio Militar at the age of fourteen. He later became a teacher and director of the Colegio Militar. He also studied in Europe and got involved in the revolution serving under Francisco Madero against Emiliano Zapata. He then joined the Constitucionalistas or Venustiano Carranza in 1913. Eventually he ended up a Villista. In part, Angeles was a large part of the success of the Division del Norte that gained much fame for the victories at the second battle of Torreon and at Zacatecas. In 1919, in Chihuahua, one of his officers gave him up to opposing forces and he was court marshaled. During his trial he made long speeches not to defend himself, but to explain his actions over the years which contradicted themselves in some cases. He embraced the revolutionary cause throughout his career and was executed November 26, 1919.
The corrido of Felipe Angeles has a lot in common with those of Benajmin Argumedo. Both of them have strong emotional cores which are the speech events. In the Angeles corrido, the speech events are very strong identification points for the audience as he speaks about writing to his family and other topics. The lives of these two men are also similar in that they both fought for many different factions during the war and were eventually caught and executed because of a traitor in their camp which is an often used formula in corridos of this type. The introduction of a traitor further enhances the emotional appeal and stature of the hero.
Felipe Angeles also has many of the Duvalier formulas. It begins with he llamada inicial but leaves out the date when it quickly continues on to telling places and events of Angeles' life. The traditional antecedents to speech events are absent as well. The corridistas simply said that "Angeles then thought..." or something similarly simple. However, the despedida de personaje is a major part of this corrido which doesn't contain an outspoken message other than Angeles is a hero. Angeles makes many speeches with very deep feelings which constitute the emotional core which was discussed above. The despedida continues with the corridista reminding everyone that Angeles was "brave," "his courage was real," and that "there was no one else like him." Finally, the despedida is found in the last stanza and it is a fairly standard ending for a corrido.
Felipe Angeles Broadside
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