Corrido de Jimmy Aguirre

Annotation

Agapito Zúñiga, a famous Mexican-American Corrido artist - corridos traditional spread news in Mexican territories through folk music in the late 18th century. Musicians continued this tradition in the US, singing about wars and political events, such as the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK (see Homenaje a Robert F. Kennedy, El corrido de John F. Kennedy, and Memorias del Dr. Martin Luther King as examples).12 Agapito Zúñiga was born 19 November 1924, in Burgos, Tamaulipas, Mexico. He immigrated to the US, and lived in Corpus Christi, Texas, USA, where he died on 16 January 2015. He was a member of the Mexican group Los Desveladores, which formed in 1946. He was a composer, singer, and accordion player. On 5 June 2010, he was inducted into the South Texas Walk of Fame in Corpus Christi.3 He released "Corrido de Jimmy Aguirre" (Discos Escorpión) in 1969 in Corpus, about the Mexican-American soldier Jimmy Aguire, who won a Distinguished Service Cross - he was killed in action (K.I.A.) while saving 5 members of his platoon.4 The song began with a patriotic tribute to the soldier, also praising his Mexican heritage: "Jimmy threw himself into combat, and his name asserted, he was Mexican, to die or to win". The song ended with a patriotic line, encouraging people to fight for their country: "with this I say goodbye, with feeling and eagerness, have no means, boys, when you go to Vietnam".5Sources1Corridos in Migrant Memory (Martha I. Chew Sánchez, 2006)↩2¡Corrido!: The Living Ballad of Mexico's Western Coast (John Holmes McDowell, 2015)↩3agapitozuniga.com (archived copy)↩4ameddregiment.amedd.army.mil: Vietnam ab (archived copy)↩5UCLA Frontera Collection: Ballads vietnam patriotism and protest↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Notes

Discos Escorpión E.S.-114-A, Side 1, 2118 Harriett Dr., Corpus Christi, Tex.; gold label with a black scorpion forming the label name; "Corrido de Jimmy Aguirre" (Jesse Saldivar-A. Zuñiga), marked "Corrido", time 3:29; Agapito Zuñiga y su Conjunto. [From the record sleeve and labels]

About the artist

Born 19 November 1924, Burgos, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Died 16 January 2015, Corpus Christi, Texas, USA.

Themes

Soldier's Perspective · K.I.A. · Patriotic

In collections

Mexican-American / Hispanic Songs · US 'Patriotic' / Pro-Government / Anti-Protest Songs [War Years]