The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2016. ^ a b Maslin, Janet (October 14, 1983). "Film: 'Gregorio Cortez ' ".
In the second part of the book "El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez, a Ballad of Border Conflict,” Paredes provides a study of the narrative form of the corrido.
Once Cortez was caught, he became the first Mexican to be tried in court in the United States, with an interpreter to translate the proceedings. Cortez’s story became a piece of popular folklore, and “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez” takes its name from the corrido that memorialized the outlaw’s heroic struggle in song.
The song in question was an anonymously written ballad, heard across the South Texas borderlands while Gregorio Cortez himself awaited trial. Popular on both sides of the border, corridos often recounted current events and the exploits of local figures.
The song in question was an anonymously written ballad, heard across the South Texas borderlands while Gregorio Cortez himself awaited trial. Popular on both sides of the border, corridos often recounted current events and the exploits of local figures.
Robert M. YoungAmerico ParedesVictor VillaseñorThe Ballad of Gregorio Cortez/Screenplay
In this film set in 1901 and based on a true story, Edward James Olmos plays a young Mexican named Gregorio Cortez. Cortez killed a sheriff in Gonzales, Tex. and flees, chased by a 600 man posse led by the Texas Rangers.
Cortez was finally captured when Jesús González, one of his acquaintances, located him and led a posse to him on June 22, 1901, ten days after the encounter between Cortez and Sheriff Morris. Some Tejanos later labeled González a traitor to his people and ostracized him.
Belmont-Gonzales, TexasPlot. Set in Belmont-Gonzales, Texas in 1901. After a misunderstanding, a Mexican-American farmer kills a sheriff. He eludes capture and becomes a folk hero.
narrative balladView the lyrics and music for "El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez." A corrido is a narrative ballad. The genre became increasingly popular around the time of the Mexican Revolution on 1910 and remains a popular genre today, particularly in the Mexican-American border communities.
While serving a fifty-year sentence, Gregorio received a conditional pardon and was released in 1913. He headed south to fight in the Mexican Revolution and died of pneumonia in 1916.
Gregorio CortezGregorio Cortez is an OSS agent and the father of Juni and Carmen. He started off as a semi-retired spy who hides his career in espionage from his children....Gregorio CortezPortrayed by:Antonio BanderasFirst Appearance:Spy Kids24 more rows
Digital History. Date: Annotation: One of the most popular corridos described a real-life figure, Gregorio Cortez, who killed two sheriffs in south Texas in 1901, and who gained folk hero status when he eluded capture by the Texas Rangers.
Gregorio killed Sheriff Morris in self-defense after the Sheriff had fired repeatedly on his brother Romaldo who, thinking that Gregorio was unarmed, ran at the Sheriff trying to protect Gregorio. The Sheriff shot Romaldo and he fell away from the door. Cortez then shot Morris with his pistol.
“Gregorio Cortez” is a corrido originating from the Mexican-American borderlands that details a confrontation between a vaquero and a police officer. Corridos are best defined as Mexican folk ballads from this region, particularly around the border between Texas and Mexico.
Set in Belmont - Gonzales, Texas in 1901. After a misunderstanding, a Mexican-American farmer kills a sheriff. He eludes capture and becomes a folk hero. When eventually he is caught, he is tried seven times before finally being released, after twelve years in prison.
The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% approval rating with an average rating of 7.67/10 based on 6 reviews.
Rosanna DeSoto won the Golden Eagle Award for Best Actress for her performance in the film.
The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2016.
But the more one knows about the historical event it is based on, and the retelling of that event in various media over the next eighty years, the more fascinating it becomes. The case of Gregorio Cortez was itself extraordinary, but so is the way his story has lived on as a kind of mediated folklore, first as a South Texas corrido, or ballad, then as a book still in print sixty years after it was first published, and finally as an independently made film.
The song in question was an anonymously written ballad, heard across the South Texas borderlands while Gregorio Cortez himself awaited trial. Popular on both sides of the border, corridos often recounted current events and the exploits of local figures. “El corrido de Gregorio Cortez” is a perfect example of the genre, ...
Most of the shots are longish takes, showing Olmos/Cortez relating to the horse as he slips the bridle and straps over the animal’s head, then gets it to accept the bit in its mouth. And when he mounts the horse, Olmos/Cortez keeps control, though it rears twice.
Gregorio fled in the confusion. By the time he was apprehended eight days later, he had traveled some 120 miles on foot and at least 400 more on horseback, crisscrossing Central and South Texas as he eluded capture by hundreds of local lawmen and Texas Rangers (a law-enforcement body with statewide jurisdiction).
The deputy ran off, and Gregorio took his wounded brother to a friend’s house in Kenedy to convalesce. He then walked two days to another friend’s farmhouse to hide out. A posse tracked him there and engaged the house’s inhabitants in a nighttime shoot-out.
Despite that—and in some ways because of that—its publication by the University of Texas Press in 1958 was radical and groundbreaking. To begin with, it elevated a borderland corrido to the level of a classical folkloric ballad .
Cinematically, The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez is striking and memorable for several reasons. As a revisionist western, it plays with the typical genre formula by siding with the ethnic fugitive rather than the Anglo lawman.
It is widely believed that the original version of the Cortez corrido was written as the drama was unfolding by an unknown guitarrero who performed the ballad in various cantinas along the border.
Section 107. Probably the best-known corrido of the entire turn-of-the-century period is "El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez.". Although this ballad celebrates an event that occurred a century ago, ...
The Cortez incident quickly came to symbolize the ongoing border conflicts, and the ballad that it inspired helped establish the Mexican corrido as a means of expressing racial and cultural tensions along the border. As Cortez eluded his captors, they only grew more determined to capture and punish him.
Nevertheless, the Cortez case united Mexicans and Mexican Americans in a common cause that caught attention as far away as Mexico City, where a broadside ballad of Cortez was used to collect funds for his defense. Through the corrido, Cortez ostensibly was able to appeal directly to the audience for contributions.
El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez. A corrido, or ballad, is a form of folk song used to tell a story. Typically, corridos are highly stylized and often romantic ballads that celebrate Hispanic history and culture along the Texas–Mexico border. The earliest border corrido can be traced to Juan Nepomuceno Cortina.
Those who admired him pointed to the fact that, on the run, he had walked nearly 100 miles and ridden more than 400, while being pursued by search parties of up to 300 men. By the time of his arrest, Cortez had killed two sheriffs and evaded capture by numerous posses.
Some of the earliest expressed the concern that Cortez would never be given a fair hearing: Between Cortez's capture and his sentencing, from 1901 to 1905, the corrido grew increasingly popular and could be heard on ranches, in bars, and at public gatherings throughout the Southwest.
In Américo Paredes 's book, With His Pistol in His Hand, he recites eleven versions of El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez each sung by numerous guitarreros (guitarists) near the Mexican-American border. Though each corrido had their own style, flair, or message wanting to be relayed, they all exaggerated the life of Cortez to transform him into a Mexican folk hero .
Early life. Gregorio Cortez Lira was born in the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico, near the U.S.-Mexico border, the son of Roman Cortez Garza, a rancher, and Rosalia Lira Cortinas. Cortez and his first wife divorced in 1903, and in 1905 he married Estefana Garza. They had no children and later separated.
Over his 10-day journey, Cortez had ridden three horses, traveled over 500 miles, and had seemingly blended in with the townspeople of Cotulla. During those 10 days, Cortez was pursued by a posse that at times included up to 300 men. He traveled nearly 400 miles on horseback and more than 100 miles on foot.
After the capture of Cortez, before court proceedings would begin, Mexican-Americans across the country started a defense fund for Cortez, saying that without the support it would be impossible for him to get a fair trial. The amount of money raised is unknown, however, the fund was largely advertised by a newspaper publisher, Pablo Cruz, and the Sociedad Trabajador Miguel Hidalgo in San Antonio and saw donations flood in from rich landowners and even local "rancheros". Though Cortez's support was mainly from those of Mexican descent, some Anglo-Americans admired his "intellect, wisdom and ingenuity. Some prominent Anglo-Texans aiding Cortez were then Texas Secretary of State, F.C. Weinert, and defense lawyer, R.B Abernathy, who Cortez remembered as one of his most vital attorneys, defending him for over four years.
After an altercation in which he killed Sheriff W.T. (Brack) Morris, Cortez went on the run from the Texas Rangers for thirteen days. He became the target of the largest manhunt in U.S. history from June 14, 1901 to June 22, 1901. He was accused of murdering two sheriffs and finally convicted of horse theft.
After narrowly escaping the standoff on the Robledo ranch, Cortez "walked directly south to the banks of the Guadalupe River [...] to another friend, Ceferino Flores." Flores gave Cortez a horse and saddle to continue his journey. Cortez would frequently ride in circles and create paths in different directions to throw off the authorities. After days of travel, the mare grew weary and dropped dead. Soon saddling another small horse, Cortez continued south, just outside of Floresville, close to Cotulla. Though Cortez succeeded in creating disorientating routes for officers to follow, he traveled close to the Corpus Christi-to-Laredo railroad and made it evident that he was moving toward Laredo. As the law was close behind him, Cortez took risks; having his newfound horse jump over sharp wire fences or pretending he was a cattle herder. But on June 20, as the mare could not continue, Cortez left the horse and snuck into Cotulla and received food and new clothes from locals. Cortez did not have a horse and was essentially surrounded by authorities. However, he went unnoticed, authorities believed he had acquired yet another horse, and that their only chance of catching Cortez would be by accident. Over his 10-day journey, Cortez had ridden three horses, traveled over 500 miles, and had seemingly blended in with the townspeople of Cotulla.
Capture. Gregorio managed to elude hundreds of men in parties of up to three hundred by riding four hundred miles on mares and walking at least 120 miles along the Mexico-Texas border before ultimately being captured on June 22.
The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez is a 1982 American Western film directed by Robert M. Young and starring Edward James Olmos as Gregorio Cortez. It is based on the book With His Pistol in His Hand by Americo Paredes.
Set in Belmont-Gonzales, Texas in 1901. After a misunderstanding, a Mexican-American farmer kills a sheriff. He eludes capture and becomes a folk hero. When eventually he is caught, he is tried seven times before finally being released, after twelve years in prison.
• Edward James Olmos as Gregorio Cortez
• Victoria Plata as Carmen Cortez
• James Gammon as Frank Fly
• Tom Bower as Boone Choate
The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% approval rating with an average rating of 7.67/10 based on 6 reviews.
Janet Maslin of The New York Times said, "[The film] tells what sounds like a stirring story, and its plainness would seem to be an asset. But something more was needed here, if not in the way of fireworks then maybe just in verisimilitude. The events may be real, and even the settings are au…
Rosanna DeSoto won the Golden Eagle Award for Best Actress for her performance in the film.
The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2016.
• Latin American cinema
• 1982 in film
• 1983 in film
• The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez at IMDb
• The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez: A Cinematic Corrido an essay by Charles Ramírez Berg at the Criterion Collection