Join us for the award ceremony of the corrido contest.

The Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) and Radio Bilingüe organized the Corrido Contest 2024 to celebrate the corrido tradition in the San Joaquin Valley and the time has come to announce the winners who will receive a prize ranging from $250 to $800.

On Sunday, December 8, the awards ceremony will be held at the Roosevelt High School Auditorium located at 4250 East Tulare Avenue, in the City of Fresno.

The corrido, which is a music that originated as an oral tradition during the 19th century and became a popular narrative in California after the Mexican-American War, fulfills a function similar to that of the blues in African-American culture.

It is a song whose lyrics often focus on historical, political or epic events about the daily life of the working class. Corridos are usually structured with a greeting, a prologue, a story, a moral and a farewell.

As of last October, the California Traditional Arts Alliance and Radio Bilingüe invited corrido composers from the San Joaquin Valley to submit their original corridos for the Corrido Contest 2024.

The contest is part of the Sonidos de California-San Joaquin Valley project, which aims to record, archive and present the sounds of migration.

Leticia Soto, deputy director of the Alliance for California Traditional Arts talks about the purpose of this contest and reminds us that prizes will be awarded to corrido contestants, which must be allusive to the San Joaquin Valley.

So you are invited to celebrate the finalists of the Corrido Contest this Sunday, December 8, with a performance by the Morales Family and the Ladies of the Valley.

To invite you to join us in this event, these are the finalists of the corrido contest:

Félix Arreola
Rodolfo Carranza
Salvador Mendoza
Nelly Paredes
Heriberto Jaime Pérez
Martín Rodríguez
Gregoria Sánchez
Adrián Sánchez Ávila
John B. Soto
Salvador Urista Alvarado

Remember that the Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) and Radio Bilingüe, who organized the Corridos Contest in 2024, invite you to the ceremony this Sunday, December 8 at the Roosevelt High School Auditorium located at 4250 East Tulare Avenue, in the City of Fresno.

Doors to the auditorium open at 2 p.m. and admission is free. We hope to see you there to keep the tradition of San Joaquin corridos alive.