Boderland communities

In any borderland community there is bound to be tension between the diverse cultures that live in there. In both Paredes’ “El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez,” and Rivera’s The Earth did not Devour Him, the issue of the tension between Mexicans and Americans in borderland communities is a very important one. However, they are both very different in that Gregorio Cortez’s story serves as a source of hope for the Mexican people in the borderlands, whereas Rivera’s piece is a realistic collection of people’s everyday lives and how they are affected by the racial tension.
In the story of Gregorio Cortez, Gregorio is a Mexican farmer who moves north to Texas with his brother, Roman, to try and make a living. It is clear that there is tension between the Mexicans and Americans in Texas in this story because the American trader makes numerous negative comments about Mexicans...