It’s been almost one week since the horrifying terrorist attack in El Paso, Tx, which saw 22 people murdered, and as many as two dozen suffer injuries as a result. And despite unwelcome visits by the very politicians who uphold white supremacy and enable the ownership of assault weapons (including President Donald Trump, senator John Cornyn, and Texas governor Greg Abbot), El Pasoans have done their best to hold their heads up high, and begin the healing process – often expressing their feelings through comforting and familiar songs, like “Amor Eterno.”
But recently, Photojournalist J. Omar Ornelas found another music tribute being paid at the memorial site for the fallen victims – this time an original corrido.
Though corridos are often thought of as anthems written to praise a hero (often even a drug-dealing anti-hero), corridos can also be used to tell stories of loss and lament. And corridos are ubiquitous in El Paso. It’s rare to leave one’s house without hearing the familiar sound wafting through the air – anywhere from meat markets, to the oversized pickup truck waiting at the busy intersection.
Corridos are a comforting sound, and this young man’s tribute tells the story of what happened in El Paso, adding that the community will not be broken by the terrorist’s actions.
Check out our translation below:
I’m going to sing a corrido
Listen closely
In the United States
In the City of El Paso Texas
Many people are crying
For what has happened here
On the 3rd of August
One Saturday morning
At Walmart by Cielo Vista
People walked peacefully
They never could have imagined
Their lives would be changed
Gunshots were heard
A gun was being unloaded
A massacre began
And my people felt afraid
They didn’t know where to run
But everyone helped each other
These things that I tell you
The news reported them
22 dead and 26 injured
El Chuco finds itself in mourning
Many families are mourning
It was an act of terrorism
That this monster caused
He tried to break my people
Be he didn’t achieve that
Now we are more united
Thanks be to god