This book does a great job of building a cross-cultural bridge between music and literary analysis. In explaining the form of a Mexican corrido, Paredes lays the groundwork for a musicological study of an oral tradition. His text is also useful in understanding the form of contemporary rap and hip-hop (both politically conscious and commercial).

My one reservation about this text is the fact that it ignores the role that women play in creating this artform. Though not a misogynist, Paredes tends to treat women as invisible in terms of the corridos...

This is a must-read, but if you enjoy the study of music look up Lydia Mendoza.

This book is a fine study of Mexican-American folklore. Paredes takes a "literary ethnographic" approach to studying the ballad singer Gregorio Cortez. Paredes develops interesting and rich ways of applying literary analysis to the ballads. He also uses the study of history along with ethnographic inquiry to challenge the image of the Texas ranger as a knight in shining armor. For anyone interested in social history, ethnographic study, and literary approaches to studying culture, I would highly recommend seeing how this fine folklorist integrates all three approaches in a fascinating story. What is especially interesting is that he was taking this approach three decades ago.

This outstanding book gives a wonderful look at the rich culture that developed in the geographic region between Mexico and the United States. The people that lived on either side of the border were a mix of religious ideals, values and cultures joined by need,location and lack of powerful policitical presence from either nation.

This book outlines the similiarities and the differences among the people of this region and explains the rich forklore and presence of this unique culture ...not quite Texan and not quite Mexican.

One remarkable feature of the book is an explanation of the development of the Border Ballad called the "Corrido" as a means of transmitting news, building interest, spotlighting injustices and creating legends. It presents a detailed study of the various version of the focal "Corrido de Gregorio Cortez" as an example. The legend, the facts and the politics are given equal emphasis allowing the reader an overview of a different age.

The facts are well documented but much like the "corrido" itself is very entertaining and well researched by this talented author. It presents much needed background for Mexican-Americans whose cultures were seeded in that land that straddled the politics and sentiments of two nations. This book should be required reading in every high school in states along the US Mexico border!

This book is very poorly written. There are a number of flash backs that if my teacher hadn't pointed out, no one would have that it was a flash back. The ending is also terrible. Only read this book if you have to much time on your hands.

This book was okay. It was a first draft, and therefore it wasn't edited. I thought that it was historically accurate, and I liked the book up until the ending for its detail, imagery, and language. There was no correlation between the ending and the story, however. You can't skip about 4 - 8 years, and show a guy completely pro-Mexican and anti-gringo suddenly change into a man that lives with those he once hated, and scorns that which he once loved so much. That may be how the story in real life would have ended, but I personally don't like the idea of filling in all the details. I would have preferred to read an extra 100 - 200 pages to find out how Gualinto became who he became. Although I was disappointed in the last 20 pages, I was impressed by the 280 preceding it, so I gave the book 3 stars.

Most readers know Americo Paredes as the great folklorist that he was. Because his book George Washington Gomez was not published in the late 1930's when Paredes wrote it, only a rough draft version was released shortly before he died.

To me, this version of Texas historical fiction along the valley border presents a side to Mexican American settlement that few other books reveal. I find Paredes' story powerful and well worth reading.

Gualinto, little George Washington Gomez, is the American born son of his illegal immigrant parents; his father is an outlaw of some notoriety. The birth name his parents give him symbolizes their hope that he will become the leader of his people in America. But their hopes take a big detour as this little boy grows up in fictional Jonesville as a spoiled only son in a matriarchal household. With his father dead, the only strong male role for Gualinto is his reformed outlaw uncle.

Gualinto suffers the insults and taunts of growing up as a member of the poor and powerless society of South Texas. His family is subjected to the cruelities of racist Anglos, including the unattractive side of El Renche, the Texas Rangers. Even in an all Mexican American school for children, Gualinto is embarrassed and punished for his lack of academic accomplishment by the spinster Mexican American teacher . Those classroom scenes remind one of the cruelties found in Tom Brown's School Days and the writings of Charles Dickens.

Surrounded by love at home, treated kindly by some of the Jonesville citizenry, insulated from the cruelities exacted on his sisters who do not adhere to their mother's demands, Gualinto grows to adolescence and a time of continued social positioning that often leads to rejection.

The values that Gualinto develops reflect his survival in the South Texas that is his home. When he heroically departs the community to gain that all important college education, he also departs from the hoped for role his parents once projected. In the end, his story is one of betrayal and tragedy, but not unrealistic.

From having my senior Hispanic students read Gomez, I experienced feedback that was invaluable. They were amazed that such a novel, telling the side of many of their people existed. Tragic or not, the novel rang true for them. I recommend this novel over and over to students, fellow teachers, and readers. It offers an eye-opening view of another side of the South Texas story.