During the late 19th century and early 20th century, a form of Mexican popular music called corrido gained popularity along the Mexico-Texas border (Saldívar). Born from the Spanish Romantic tradition, the corrido is a border ballad “born by telling the story of border conflicts and its effects on Mexican-Mexican culture” (Saldívar). A sort of “oral folk history,” the corrido was studied intensively by Américo Paredes, who later built his masterpiece, George Washington Gomez, around the “context and theme” of the corrido (Mendoza 146). But the novel is not a traditional bullfight, in which the legendary hero defends his people and dies for their honor. Instead, through plot, characterization, and rhetorical devices, George Washington Gomez is an anti-corrido. It has been identified that the corrido has distinctive characteristics that constitute its theme and plot. First, the corrido has a “context of hostile relations between Anglos and Mexicans along the border and the establishment of a scenic structure, a geographical location, and opposing social forces” (Mendoza 146). The hero of the corrido “is a hard-working and peace-loving Mexican who, pushed by the Anglo-Saxons, leads to violence, forcing him to defend his rights and those of others in his community against the rangers” (Saldívar). This hero “is quickly presented in legendary proportions and defiant stature” and many people must die before the hero reaches his triumphant, yet tragic death (Mendoza 146). The Anglo-Saxons in the corrido, meanwhile, are not one-dimensional villains but “complex figures that contain positive and negative qualities” (Mendoza 146). These distinctive features of a corrido – setting, conflict and characterization, among others – ...... middle of the sheet ...... l. “Ge-o-ge,” he called in an exaggerated gringo accent. He looked back. Tears streamed down his stiff, expressionless face. "Cabrón!" he said. 'I sell sanavabiche!'” (Paredes 294) In this way, George – no longer Guánlito – has betrayed his people politically and culturally, and “is not the tragic hero who died in defense of his people” (Mendoza 148) .In conclusion, through plot, characterization, and rhetorical devices such as tone, George Washington Gomez is an anti-corrido. However, it must be said that perhaps precisely in its anti-corrido purpose, the novel is a corrido. In telling the story of Guánlito, the anti-hero of the Mexicans, perhaps Paredes sings to readers his personal border ballad, an ironic and cautionary tale aimed at Chicanos to remember who they are and where they come from and to resist, always, as a hero would of the corridor.