Episode 30 – Honoring Corridos and Celestino Fernandez

Production and edition by Carlos Quintero

The 2023 edition of Tucson Meet Yourself honored the corrido and one of its most prominent local researchers, composers, and proponents, Dr. Celestino Fernandez. Dr. Fernandez has been at the center of promoting the corrido for decades, through public events and educational programs, including the Tucson Corrido Contest, or Concurso de Corridos. He was interviewed by Dr. Estevan Azcona, ethnomusicologist and Assistant Research Social Scientist at the Southwest Center, as Las Azaleas and Jacobo Ramirez played some of Celestino’s compositions.

Narrative ballads inspired by real events, corridos amplify voices often muffled by dominant culture. A composer of over 50 corridos, Fernandez recently released Corridos de Celestino, an album featuring corridos on topics such as immigration, the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, the massacre of 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, and those that honor distinguished members of the Tucson community, among other topics.