This year, the César Chávez and Dolores Huerta Commemorative Celebration, or CCDH, celebrated 15 years of honoring the legacy and impact of farmworkers. On Friday, March 21, CCDH kicked off National Farmworker Awareness Week with “Noche de Corridos,” a traditional Mexican-style ballad event, at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at MSU.
The CCDH committee and the Broad Art Museum collaborated on “Noche de Corridos” to raise awareness of the value and importance of farmworkers while inviting attendees to engage with the exhibition “Farmland: Food, Justice and Sovereignty.” This exhibition touches on the relationship between agriculture and society, with themes exploring labor, food insecurity, Indigenous knowledge and MSU’s related history to agriculture.
After attendees went through the exhibition, they enjoyed live music from Los Güeros Ibarra, which is known for playing corridos, narrative ballads that originate from northern Mexico. Bands that play corrido music often sing about conflict, struggle, aspirations and the diverse lived experiences of different groups of people. Farmworkers are especially connected to corridos because it’s the music of “los campesinos,” or farmworkers. It is common to hear corrido music wherever there are los campesinos harvesting the food that feeds America.
While corridos are written and performed to entertain, they are also much more. Corridos serve as an authentic storytelling tool that gives groups like the farmworker community a voice to express their struggles and experiences.
