<p>With just an acoustic guitar and slide deck presentation, Juan Dies shared tales of heroism, defiance and tragedy at the Chicago History Museum on Saturday.</p><p>Singing in Spanish and narrating in English, Dies engaged a small audience about a princess, a Mexican general, a turtle, a rat and four American figures:<b> </b>Muhammad Ali, Abraham Lincoln, Amelia Earhart and Puerto Rican Baseball Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente.</p><p>“I bid farewell full of sadness, this man's worth measured in tons,” Dies said of Clemente during a song. “[He] is now up in Heaven, where he keeps scoring home runs.”</p><p>They were the subjects of corridos, or traditional Mexican ballads, performed by Dies as part of the museum’s annual Civic Season, which provides programming about activism, history and community engagement ahead of Independence Day.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center> <div class="Enhancement-item" data-crop=""> <figure class="Figure"><a class="AnchorLink" id="image-3c0000" name="image-3c0000"></a> <picture data-crop="medium"> <source type="image/webp" width="490" height="275" data-srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/d321386/2147483647/strip/true/crop/6000x3367+0+316/resize/490x275!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F00%2F3d%2Ff94654f44f749114e5fe6e0be762%2Fcorridos-260628-11.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ed603e1/2147483647/strip/true/crop/6000x3367+0+316/resize/980x550!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F00%2F3d%2Ff94654f44f749114e5fe6e0be762%2Fcorridos-260628-11.jpg 2x" data-lazy-load="true" srcset="data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyNzVweCIgd2lkdGg9IjQ5MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=" /> <source width="490" height="275" data-srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/4b33266/2147483647/strip/true/crop/6000x3367+0+316/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F00%2F3d%2Ff94654f44f749114e5fe6e0be762%2Fcorridos-260628-11.jpg" data-lazy-load="true" srcset="data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyNzVweCIgd2lkdGg9IjQ5MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=" /> <img class="Image" alt="Juan Dies performs corridos about historical figures including Roberto Clemente at the Chicago History Museum" srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/4b33266/2147483647/strip/true/crop/6000x3367+0+316/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F00%2F3d%2Ff94654f44f749114e5fe6e0be762%2Fcorridos-260628-11.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/54b60f6/2147483647/strip/true/crop/6000x3367+0+316/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F00%2F3d%2Ff94654f44f749114e5fe6e0be762%2Fcorridos-260628-11.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275" data-src="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/4b33266/2147483647/strip/true/crop/6000x3367+0+316/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F00%2F3d%2Ff94654f44f749114e5fe6e0be762%2Fcorridos-260628-11.jpg" data-lazy-load="true" src="data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyNzVweCIgd2lkdGg9IjQ5MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=" > </picture> <div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Juan Dies performs corridos about historical figures including Roberto Clemente at the Chicago History Museum on Saturday, June 27, 2026.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Jeremy Battle/Sun-Times</p></div></div> </figure> </div> </div><p>In honor of the nation’s 250th anniversary, Dies penned corridos about notable Americans to be honored in President Donald Trump’s planned National Garden of American Heroes in Washington, D.C.’s West Potomac Park. He is co-founder of the Sones de Mexico Ensemble, a Mexican folk music group and educational organization, which received a $25,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant for the project.