Corrido composer and UA School of Medicine professor collaborate
When Sam Keim, an associate professor and vice head and residency director of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Arizona, developed a model to predict the amount of border-related deaths based on the weather, he needed a more compelling way to showcase its importance.
Keim’s research findings proved to be significant, but immigrants from Mexico were either blind to or unwilling to see the fatal dangers of attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.
Shortly after developing his model and Web site to display the death probability, Keim’s colleague at University Medical Center, Barbara Felix, told him about the Mexican tradition of corridos.
“(She) suggested one day that a corrido might be a great vehicle of communication to the potential pre-crossers South of the border,” Keim said.
A corrido is a Mexican tradition of storytelling in the form of a folk song, or ballad.
Keim, not too familiar with corridos himself, set out to find someone who was.
“I asked a few people if they knew any great corrido songwriters and they all responded, 'Dr. Fernandez is the man,’” Keim said.
professor and specializes in composing corridos.
Fernandez says that corridos are very factual, tell a story to the listener and they often include exact dates.
“They take an event or a personality or a location and something that has impressed, or made an impression on public sentiment, public feeling,” Fernandez said.
Corridos can be used to depict any event, ranging from exciting ones, like the signing of Fernando Valenzuela, from Sonora, to the L.A. Dodgers, to somber ones, like the tragedy of 9/11.
The most popular topic to base a corrido off of recently is immigration, according to Fernandez. He and Keim think that a corrido might be an influential way to impact people in Mexico about the dangers of crossing the border.
“Clearly music is a way to educate others,” Fernandez said.
Fernandez’s corrido, entitled “Peligro en el Desierto,” or “Danger in the Desert,” warns others of the swindling people who illegally try to smuggle people across the border, or coyotes, and of the potential for death.
Keim says that Fernandez is hoping to eventually find a popular music group who would be willing to record his original corrido.
“It would be interesting to study whether immigrants would be impacted by popular music as much or more than government warnings,” said Keim.
Both Keim and Fernandez are in the process of including Fernandez’s corrido on Keim’s Web site, borderRisk.
Read the corrido.
UA School of Medicine professor develops model to predict border deaths
"Peligro En El Desierto" (English)
"Peligro En El Desierto" (Spanish)