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CORRIDO DE BELVEDERE The ballad Corrido de Belvedere depicts a Mexican immigrant's disillusion with life in the United States. (Reprinted in McWilliams, 204-105.)
To earn dollars was my dream, I bought shoes and I bought a hat And even put on trousers. For they told me that here the dollars Were scattered about in heaps; That there were girls and theaters And there here everything was good fun. And now I'm overwhelmed – I am a shoemaker by trade But here they say I'm a camel And good only for pick and shovel. What good is it to know my trade If there are manufacturers by the score, And while I make two little shoes They turn out more than a million. Many Mexicans don't care to speak The language their mothers taught them And go about saying they are Spanish And deny their country's flag. Some are darker than chapote But they pretend to be Saxon; They go about powdered to the back of the neck And wear skirts for trousers. The girls go about almost naked And call la tienda "estor" They go around with dirt-streaked legs But with those stockings of chiffon. Even my old women has changed on me – She wears a bob-tailed dress of silk, Goes about painted like a pinata And goes at night to the dancing hall. My kids speak perfect English And have no use for our Spanish They call me "fader" and don't work And are crazy about the Charleston. I'm tired of all this nonosense I'm going back to Michoacan; As a parting memory I leave the old woman To see if someone else wants to burden himself.
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