“The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez” is a real-life story that was produced in 1980 as an independent American Playhouse film. The story of Gregorio Cortez is that of a Tejano vaquero (cowboy) who is wrongly accused of stealing a horse during a translation misunderstanding with a sheriff at his ranch. During a heated exchange of words in Spanish, Cortez’s unarmed brother is gunned down by the sheriff. Cortez kills the sheriff in self-defense. Running for his life and leaving his family behind, he is hunted by a posse of hundreds of Texas Rangers hell bent on revenge. He eludes them for 13 days by riding circles around them. Cortez is finally captured when he learns his family is being held behind bars, and following a Texas courthouse conviction, he is sent to prison. His story inspired the narrative ballad “El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez.”

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