Arriba! Folklorico music and dance of Mexico - Episode #1 - 2 July 2006: Introduction with the Jarabe Tapatio played by mariachis during Fiesta! 2006

This episode introduces the series of Arriba! Folklorico Music and Dance of Mexico.
The main topics discussed were:

• A musical teaser introduction of the beginning of the song El Jarabe Tapatio, as played by the Mariachi Los Caporales and other mariachis in San Antonio, Texas, during the week-long celebration of Mexican Culture in April, 2006 -- this annual program is called Fiesta!

• Setting the stage of the cultural setting of Mexico -- especially the mixture of cultures resulting from the many invasions during its history. These include the Spaniards, the French, the US Americans (during the Mexican War of 1846-1848), along with the settlement of the Germans and Poles.

• The many cultures and subcultures for each region of the 30 modern states of Mexico are introduced -- ready for future episodes to go more into depth:

1. El Norte
2. La Huasteca
3. Veracruz (Jarocho)
4. Chiapas
5. Michoacan
6. Jalisco
7. Los Aztecas (Tenochtitlan, ancient capital, which is now Mexico City)

• A map of the regions is provided for you with an image, above.
  

• The real benefit of future episodes will be the live interviews with different musicians from mariachis, conjuntos jarochos, conjuntos huastecos, conjuntos nortenos, and trios.

• My background as a former professional folklorico dancer, director of a Ballet Folklorico Group, as well as an instructor in Southern California and professor at the University in California (where I taught the course called "A survey of Mexican folklore: music and dance from the Pre-Columbian era to the modern day").

• Program ends with the final teaser of the final part of the musical piece, El Jarabe Tapatio, including an explanation of the diana.

• There will be more to come in future episodes, so don't miss out.

• You can listen to, or download, this episode as an mp3 file.