The recordings haven't become hits on Spanish-language radio, here or in Mexico. But that's not unusual or discouraging for the artists when their music is based on Mexican corridos -- folkloric ballads that narrate everyday stories for everyday people. Derived from the name of a popular 18th-century ballad in Spain, corridos were exported to Mexico, where they carried news from village to village, playing a vital role in the Mexican Revolution of 1910.