Mexican Corrido about the 1918 Influenza

Subject: Mexican Corrido about the 1918 Influenza
From: GUEST,MadeinSpain
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 05:33 PM

Greetings all,
My first time on your site, so advanced apologies for any breach of protocol. I'm researching the 1918 Influenza and the impact this pandemic had on Hispanic, Asian and Native American communities that existed back then. I was wondering if anyone knew of any Mexican folk songs, such as Corridos, that might have been written about this event.

Thank you

Subject: RE: Mexican Corrido about the 1918 Influenza
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 05:48 PM

Hi, MadeinSpain-
I tried this Google search for influenza corrido 1918 and came up with lots of results, but I don't see what you're looking for yet. I looked in a couple of corridos books I have - Julian Calleja and Coleccion Adelita. No luck in either.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Mexican Corrido about the 1918 Influenza
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 07:25 PM

Nothing in Mendoza, "Corridos mexicanos."
Nothing in Hernandez, "Corridos de la capital."

Subject: RE: Mexican Corrido about the 1918 Influenza
From: Amos
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 08:22 PM

Interestingly there is a Heritage CD containing a ZuLu harmony about Influenza from 1918. I doubt it qualifies as a corrido, though.


HT CD 19 Caluza's Double Quartet 1930   (Zulu Harmony Vocals)
Ubungca (Oxford Bags); Ingoduso; Influenza (1918); Sa Ni Bona; Ixegwana; Vul 'Indhlela, Mnta Ka Dube; Umteto We Land Act; Bayete; Umtshado (Kuhle Kwetu); Zebras (Amadube); Iculo La Setafamasi; Uhiki Nomana; Ngi Tshele, Dudu, Si Xotshwa Emsebenzini; Kwati Be Lele; M Lete Jimi; Wa Q'Um Udalimede; Amanigel Coons; Idipu E Tekwani; Ba Bulawa Ini Abakiti.


A

Subject: RE: Mexican Corrido about the 1918 Influenza
From: Amos
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 08:25 PM

Here, just by the way, is a Spanish blog describing a history of the epidemic of 1918 which might be useful to you.

Still no corrido.


A

Subject: RE: Mexican Corrido about the 1918 Influenza
From: Amos
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 08:39 PM

http://www.corridos.org/ has several from the period but they don't mention the epidemic.


A

Subject: RE: Mexican Corrido about the 1918 Influenza
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 09:45 PM

I have looked, without success, through the indices of the five volumes of "Cancionero folklorico de Mexico," searching or looking for corrido, depravacion, enfermidad, gripe, maldad, muerte, and looking through ay, que triste, mi. Can anyone suggest other words or phrases that would lead to a song about the epidemic? This is a monumental work and I could easily miss something.

Subject: RE: Mexican Corrido about the 1918 Influenza
From: mg
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 11:41 PM

I don't know but my grandfather died of it in Tacoma, Washington. He worked on the railroads. I know they at least used to call it the Spanish Flu but perhaps the Spanish people didn't appreciate that.

Marion here has written a song about it...mg

Subject: RE: Mexican Corrido about the 1918 Influenza
From: skarpi
Date: 26 Apr 07 - 02:25 AM

it was called the Spanish flue here in Iceland at 1918.
All the best Skarpi Iceland.

Subject: RE: Mexican Corrido about the 1918 Influenza
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Apr 07 - 02:40 AM

Apparently, it was also called the Spanish flu in Mexico - I don't know that it had a particular name in the U.S.
I haven't found any Mexican influenza corridos, but it sure has been fun looking through my corridos books.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Mexican Corrido about the 1918 Influenza
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 26 Apr 07 - 04:39 PM

Influenza or flu is heard in both Mexico and Spain, but more correctly one would speak of 'gripe de España, gripe español, fluxion epidemica, fiebre, etc.

Not finding anything that refers to specific diseases (flu, yellow fever, etc.), in corridos, they don't seem to be a topic. Lots of death from accidents, murder, longing, witchcraft, and so forth.

Subject: RE: Mexican Corrido about the 1918 Influenza
From: Peace
Date: 26 Apr 07 - 04:44 PM

'"The Spanish Influenza inspired no songs, no legends, no works of art. Even fundamental facts about the epidemic were meager. To this day no one can say with certainty where the disease began, where it ended, or even which virus was at fault."25 One lading authority has summed it up: "The resemblance to the disappearance of the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland is striking. And to this day too, flu remains one of the great medical imponderables."26'

From http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:jK6ZFU81rSYJ:www.history.navy.mil/library/online/influenza%2520epid%25201918.htm+songs+about

Subject: RE: Mexican Corrido about the 1918 Influenza
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 26 Apr 07 - 04:59 PM

Peace, if the statement is incorrect, ir seems it is only marginally so. The same seems to be true of other epidemics as well- yellow fever, etc.
The plagues back a bit in history seem similarly ignored. And do you know any songs about polio?

We are learning about the Spanish Flu, however, in several labs at present, and perhaps will be able to take steps to blunt the next one- avian or whatever.

Subject: RE: Mexican Corrido about the 1918 Influenza
From: Peace
Date: 26 Apr 07 - 06:16 PM

"Plague Songs is an album of songs, by various artists, about the ten Plagues of Egypt described in the book of Exodus.
The songs were originally commissioned by the British arts organisation Artangel for its project The Margate Exodus, which centres around a one-day event that took place in Margate on 30 September 2006."

from this Wikipedia article.

Subject: RE: Mexican Corrido about the 1918 Influenza
From: madeinspain
Date: 26 Apr 07 - 09:43 PM

First of all, thanks to all who have replied, did a bit of research and added to this thread. By the way, it doesn't necessarily have to be a Corrido; any type of Spanish-language song will do. About the 1918 Influenza, aka Spanish Flu, from what I've read and seen (if you get a chance, check out the PBS doc: American Experience: Influenza 1918), the   Influenza appears to have begun in Kansas on an army post - soldiers were burning manure. The spread of the flu then followed the railroads - soldiers moving about the country and eventually being sent to Europe to fight in WWI. One of the reasons offered as to why it's called the Spanish flu is that a disproportionate number of people died in Spain, leading people to believe that it originated here, although it's also been suggested that officials at the time sought to pin blame abroad.

Subject: RE: Mexican Corrido about the 1918 Influenza
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 26 Apr 07 - 10:26 PM

madeinspain- the absence of any cancion-corrido etc. about the 1918 pandemic and others in the monumental 5-volume Cancionero Folklorico de Mexico indicates that such songs are rare- not a popular subject for song. Like Joe Offer, I have a number of Spanish collections and also came up zilch.
I wonder if someone in a comprehensive medical library or doing viral research might be able to help. Doctors sometimes compose poems on such subjects and mail them around but I don't know anyone in those fields.

The National Library of Medicine and the National Institute of Health has placed several recent research papers on-line.
Quoting from one paper on the website, "Phylogenetic analyses suggest that the 1918 virus HA gene, although more closely related to avian strains than any other mammalian sequence, is mammalian and may have been adapting in humans before 1918."
From a linked article: "Sequence and phylogenetic analyses of the complete 1918 haemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) genes show them to be the most avian-like of mammalian sequences and support the hypothesis that the pandemic virus contained surface protein-encoding genes derived from an avian influenza strain and that the 1918 virus is very similar to the common ancestor of human and classical swine H1N1 influenza strains."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9990079