Jarabe Tapatío

The tradition & historical record

The Mexican hat dance, also known as Jarabe Tapatío, is the national dance of Mexico. It originated as a courtship dance in Guadalajara, Jalisco, during the 19th century, although its elements can be traced back to the Spanish zambra and jarabe gitano, which were popular during the times of the viceroyalty. Female dancers traditionally wear a china poblana outfit, while the male dancers dress as charros, and their steps are characterized by flirtatiously stepping around the brim of their partner's hat. The standard music of the jarabe tapatío was composed by Jesús González Rubio in the 19th century. However, its more common instrumental arrangement dates from the 1920s. Sometimes it is confused with La Raspa, another Mexican dance. Nowadays, its music is most commonly performed by either mariachi groups or string ensembles. ²

The word jarabe (from Arabic šarāb), meaning "syrup", denotes the combination of various Mexican musics (sones) and dances (zapateados). The word Tapatío meaning "someone or something from Guadalajara" is the demonym of the city of Guadalajara in Jalisco and reflects the origin of this particular jarabe. A number of other dances known as jarabes are known to have existed in the 18th and 19th centuries, such as the jarabe de Jalisco, the jarabe de atole and the jarabe moreliano, but the tapatío version is by far the best known. Most of these other jarabes differ from the tapatío in terms of their regional origin throughout Mexico. This is because overall, jarabe is considered much more of a musical and folk dance genre, as opposed to one rigid definition. There is some dispute as to the jarabe tapatío's authenticity as folk dance. Music researcher Nicolás Puentes Macías from Zacatecas states that true jarabes are almost extinct in Mexico, found today only in small fractions of Zacatecas and Jalisco, and that the jarabe tapatío is really a form of a dance called "tonadilla". In addition to this, the dance's origins are also somewhat disputed, either being wholly indigenous or Hispanic in nature Some academics tend to stick to one narrative or the other, but across the board the dance is considered a truly Mestizo creation. The earliest evidence of the dance comes from the late 18th century. It was originally danced by female couples in order to avoid the disapproval of the church. Shortly before the Mexican War of Independence, mixed couples began to perform it, with a public performance at the Coliseo Theater in 1790 in Mexico City. ²

The dance represents the courtship of a man and a woman, with the woman first rejecting the man's advances, then eventually accepting them. It has a definite sexual component in metaphor, which was the original reason for disapproval by authorities. As the dance has lost its controversial status and gained status as a representative of Mexico, the dancers have come to wear garb that is also highly representative of Mexican women and men. For women, the most traditional outfit is called the "China Poblana." The blouse and skirt combination is named after a woman from India who came to Mexico on the Manila Galleon to work as a servant in the early 19th century. Her Asian dress was copied and then adapted in the State of Puebla, with the skirt now heavily embroidered and otherwise decorated with patriotic images. The traditional outfit for men is that of the charro, generally heavily decorated in silver trim. The music played to accompany the dance was written to be danced to and is played either by mariachi bands or by bands playing only string instruments such as various types of guitars, harps and violin. ²

Within Mexican communities in the US, troops of Jarabe tapatío performers are becoming more and more common. Dancers are presented with opportunities to reconnect and engage with their Mexican heritage and/or citizenship abroad through the performance of the dance. The popularity of the composition by Jesús González Rubio has led it to be used in many forms of media. For example, in The Simpsons TV series it is used to reference the Bumblebee Man, a stereotypical Mexican character. In the United Kingdom, the tune was used in adverts for Morrisons, primarily in the 1980s and 1990s, and some adverts in the mid-2000s. The supermarket's slogan and jingle at that time, 'More reasons to shop at Morrisons', had its tune derived from the jarabe's melody, which was used in all adverts in these eras. Morrisons revived the jingle and slogan in their advertising in summer 2023. The tune is also known to be popularly used for Yakko's World, a song from Animaniacs in which the character list countries of the world from the early 1990s and as a polyphonic ringtone on Nokia mobile phones in the 1990s and 2000s. It is also popularly used in the Looney Tunes cartoon shorts, particularly those featuring Speedy Gonzales. A jarabe also appears in Aaron Copland's ballet Billy the Kid, played in 58 time, the tune on a solo trumpet (with orchestral accompaniment). ²

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Mexican hat dance”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ²

Jarabe Tapatío is popular Mexican dance, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ¹

The source record links this tradition to 3 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ¹