Hispanic Heritage

El corrido de Kiansis

("The Ballad of Kansas")

"Kiansis" is a corrido that documents the epic cattle drives from Texas to the Kansas stockyards. We see in the lyrics subtle indications of the intercultural conflict that attended Anglo-Mexican relations at the time.

Five hundred steers there were,
all big and quick;
Then five Mexicans arrive,
all of them wearing good chaps;
and thirty Americans
couldn't keep them together,
and in less than a quarter-hour
they had the steers penned up.

Source: Hispanic American Almanac, Gale, 1997; DISCovering Multicultural America, Gale, 1999.