Alura Flores de Angeles “Godmother of Mexican Dance” was a woman who was not of my generation. I only heard stories of her teachings, insights, and dances as taught to me by my aunt Sanjuanita Martinez-Hunter Ph.D. My aunt would tell me that she invited Flores de Angeles to speak and teach at the University of Texas at Austin in 1979, 1982, and 1988. To think that I only missed meeting her by two years since I did not begin my studies at the University of Texas until 1990. I learned Flores de Angeles’ version of the Jarabe Tapatio, the national dance of Mexico, from my teacher Roy Lozano, who was a student of my aunt and attended Flores de Angeles’ workshop in 1979. I also learned this dance from my aunt. My aunt told me that Flores de Angeles taught her the gendered love story surrounding a performance of the Jarabe Tapatio.

The Jarabe Tapatio and Love Story

The Jarabe Tapatio is performed by the Mexican cowboy (the Charro), and the Mexicana woman (China Poblana). The most famous part of this dance is when the charro throws his sombrero on the floor and the couple dances around it.

Flores de Angeles passed on a love story behind the Jarabe Tapatio every time she taught it. I will utilize Flores de Angeles’ written words as printed in the April/May issue of Real Mexico in 1934, as well as workshop notes documented by Folklorist Ron Houston to narrate the love story behind the Jarabe Tapatio.

Flores de Angeles says, “Now the explanation of the meaning of the dance. There are eight steps, quite intricate ones. The first step represents the galloping of a horse. The charro, booted and spurred, is on his way to the china’s house. In the second step he rasps briskly at the door but it is not opened to him because the china is not in. In the third step the charro walks across the corral in order to take his horse from the stable, and on the way, in the fourth step, he meets the china poblana. She coquets with him, but keeps him at arms’ length. The fifth step shows the charro drunk-probably to drown his sorrow. He is unable to guide his horse straight as the sixth step indicates (Flores de Angeles 1934, 17).

Fearing her father would see the charro drunk, the china poblana serves him hot tea to sober him up. They both perform the footwork sequence known as the hojas de té (Houston 2017, 50).

The china poblana is touched. She turns toward the charro and the two start to flirt again. The charro signifies that he is all hers by throwing his hat on the floor. The china in order to accept him takes the chic method of dancing on the broad brim of the hat (Flores de Angeles 39) or by either placing the hat on her head (Houston 2017, 51).

In the eighth and last step, both are hilariously merry and express their pleasure and happiness by dancing “La Diana” (Flores de Angeles 1934, 39).

[They] both hide behind the hat and kiss, as they are now engaged (Houston 2017, 51). This, then, is the story of the Jarabe Tapatío, Mexico’s national dance, which …. is now known to all the world interested in dancing (Flores de Angeles 1934,39).”

Performing the Love Story

My aunt Sanjuanita Martinez-Hunter and her student Roy Lozano performed Flores de Angeles’ version of the Jarabe Tapatio in the 1970s for Austin Cable Television. Please see the videoclip below where I narrate Flores de Angeles’ love story. (Video courtesy of Michael Carmona.)

To learn more of the life of Alura Flores de Angeles and the love story of the Jarabe Tapatio, please read my article called “Unraveling State-Sanctioned Gender Roles and Reclaiming Histories: Alura Flores de Angeles’ Jarabe Tapatío” in Dance Chronicle, volume 49, issue 1, February 2026. Click on the link below to read it.

Works Cited

Cable Arts Festival, “The Jarabe Tapatío,” narrated by Melvin Elps, aired in the 1970s, on Austin Cable Television (ACTV)

Flores Barnes and Jeanne Maisonville. 1934. “The Dances.” Real Mexico. 3(15): 16-17, 39.

Houston, Ron. 2017. Folk Dances of Mexico for Grupos Folklóricos: Dances Introduced by Alura Flores and her Students. Austin: Society of Folk Dance Historians.

Copyright March 24,2026

Gabriela Mendoza-Garcia Ph.D. is a folklorista or one who researches, teaches, and performs Mexican folklórico dance. She has over thirty years of training and experience teaching folklórico. Mendoza-Garcia earned a doctoral degree in Critical Dance Studies from the University of California, Riverside. Upon graduation she began her own folklórico dance school and company in Laredo, Texas, called the Gabriela Mendoza-García Ballet Folklórico. Mendoza-Garcia teaches children and adults of all ages folklórico. She teaches traditional Mexican folklórico dance pieces, as well as works that are inspired by her scholarly research and vice versa. Her most recent publications include a children’s book called Todos a Bailar! A Folklorico Alphabet Book, an article in Dance Chronicle called “Unraveling State- Sanctioned Gender Roles and Reclaiming Histories: Alura Flores de Angeles’ Jarabe Tapatío,” a chapter entitled “Las Adelitas: Choreographing Mexicana Gender Equity while Embodying Chicana Feminism” in the forthcoming book Folklorico in the United States: Unwritten Histories, and the History & Folklore documentary with an accompanying booklet by the Webb County Heritage Foundation.