So why does the Mexican state practice a veiled censorship of this genre today, and what does the corrido tell us about modern Mexico? In Northern Mexico, a further infusion came from German, Swiss and Austro-Hungarian immigrants who introduced polkas, mazurkas, redovas, the violin and the accordion. Contemporary corridos were pamphlets set to music: instruments of social critique and folk memory. Corridos appeared in newspapers and on loose broadsheets advertised as “new corridos,” and for many they were a primary source of news. The corrido’s long road — from medieval jugglers to global streams — reminds us that music is both history and argument.