It derives from Criollo Mexicano stock, which in turn descends from Iberian cattle brought to the Americas by the Conquistadors, and introduced in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to various parts of what is now Mexico.

[4]: 50 Iberian cattle were brought to the Americas by the Conquistadors, and were introduced in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to various parts of what is now Mexico.

[3]: 159 Like other Criollo cattle of the Americas and many breeds of southern Europe, the Corriente is principally of taurine (European) derivation, but has a small admixture of indicine genetic heritage; this may be a consequence of gene flow across the Strait of Gibraltar from cattle of African origin dating to before the time of the Spanish Conquest.

[9]: 1399  A single-nucleotide polymorphism genotyping study in 2013 found the level of zebuine introgression in the Corriente to be approximately 10%, not significantly different from that seen in the Colombian Romosinuano and the Texas Longhorn.

[3]: 159  The horns come straight out and then curve forward and often slightly upward;[citation needed] they are heavy but not particularly long.