La Familia Folklórica

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My dancers have just finished their final bow at our annual concert. They are dressed in their traditional outfits which are brightly colored.  I am on stage with them, and we perform a rhythmic zapateado sequence as the curtain slowly closes in front of us. The music of the mariachi band slowly begins to fade. Once the curtain closes, we all turn to each other and cheer loudly, smile, and hug each other with congratulations. For we are a familia folklórica or a folklórico family. 

I teach children and adults of all ages traditional Mexican folk dances or folklórico. These are dances passed on from one generation to the next over centuries. Dancers wear traditional garments of the time-period and dance using intricate percussive footwork movements called zapateado. Furthermore, I carry the bodily histories of my own dance teachers including Sanjuanita Martínez-Hunter, Roy Lozano, Pedro Serna, Michael Carmona, and Salvador Ibarra whenever I teach. My first dance teacher was my aunt, Sanjuanita Martínez-Hunter. She is my inspiration. I continue teaching in her footsteps, as I share the dances of our ancestors. I have taught folklórico for about thirty years now, founding the Texas A&M International Ballet Folklórico (TAMIU) and the TAMIU Ballet Folklórico Juvenil in 1996. Now, I have my own dance academy, and company called the Gabriela Mendoza-García Ballet Folklórico.

In my folklórico dance group, I have mothers and daughters dancing together; cousins; brothers and sisters; even entire families including parents. But something amazing happens when we all dance together, we all become a familia folklórica. I don’t know how or why this happens, but we feel this affection, affinity, or closeness with our dance friends. It could be because dancing folklórico is a team effort requiring everyone to work together in order to dance in unison. Perhaps it is because as dancers we learn to dance with partners that entails close communication. Maybe we become a familia folklórica because we learn detailed choreographic patterns involving quick thinking and collaboration. Somehow, I do not believe that these are the central reasons. I suggest that we become a familia folklórica because we are united in purpose.

As we dance folklórico we embody the histories of our ancestors’ telling stories of love, loss, triumphs, and survival. This is one common goal. This goal is so integral that we realize that everyone who dances folklórico has an important contribution to make. Sometimes we dance alongside people who may have a disability; someone much older or younger than us; or a person with a totally different outlook. But we learn to love the members of our familia folklórica despite our differences. Dancing folklórico with its emphasis on history, customs, and traditions reminds us that we are more alike than different because we have a common purpose—to continue passing on the dances to the next generation as our ancestors have done before us.

Yet, this is not the sole purpose of our dancing. We also dance folklórico for the sheer love of dance. We pay close attention to the music of our dances. Listening to the voices sung in lyrics, focusing on melodies played by the traditional beats of the jarana, guitarron, and bajo sexto.   We proudly dress in traditional attire remembering how many layers of clothing our ancestors wore and the types of accessories that were once fashionable. Most importantly, zapateamos with strength, energy, precision, and skill that takes days, weeks, months, and years of rehearsal. We share this love of dance in common. This commonality helps resolve differences so that we can work together to perform at our best abilities. A love of dance underlies our every performance and bonds members of the familia folklórica.


The familia folklórica is inspired by a continuation of dance histories and united by a love of dance. Dancers deeply understand the important role they play in maintaining our dance history. This encourages us to see past differences and unite towards a common goal. Our love of dance underscores our every rehearsal and performance connecting us together in a common purpose. We dance to acknowledge, remember, inspire, and most of all we dance because we love it! Folklórico dancers are truly amazing!

Copyright, 3/4/26, Mendoza-Garcia

Gabriela Mendoza-Garcia 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,a chapter entitled“Las Adelitas: Choreographing Mexicana Gender Equity while Embodying Chicana Feminism” in the book Unwritten Histories: Folklorico in the United States, and the History & Folklore booklet with an accompanying documentary by the Webb County Heritage Foundation.

Alura Flores de Angeles and the Love Story behind the Jarabe Tapatio

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Alura Flores de Angeles

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.)

Jarabe Tapatio with Roy Lozano and Sanjuanita Martinez-Hunter Ph.D.

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.

Scholarly Works

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.

I am a Folklorista

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Big smiles and warm hugs greet me as I start another year of folklorico classes. I marvel at how tall my students have grown over the summer, listen to stories of summer getaways, and comment to parents about school happenings. I console, encourage, and coax a few of my littlest dancers who have never taken a dance lesson before. Pointing to the map of Mexico, I tell them histories of our newest dances and excitedly reveal details of our first performances.

 In preparation for the first day back, I have already begun researching the regions of Mexico to present, designing the costumes, and reviewing choreographies. My dance studio is sparkling clean having swept, mopped, and cleaned mirrors in expectation of the first day back. Costumes are organized and are neatly hung in my storage room ready for my dancers to wear.

 Later in the week, my adult dancers arrive carrying their dance bags filled with water bottles, practice skirts, folklorico shoes and everything needed to start zapateando. As I teach the footwork slowly and then with increasing speed, my dancers keep in pace with me. I smile brightly as I hear the clear, rhythmic sounds of the zapateado echoing throughout the room.  Looking around the room I can see my life’s work. I have dancers who began at four years of age and now are in their teens, adults who have danced with me for years, as well as newbies who are very enthusiastic.

I teach the rhythmic sounds of the zapataeado following in the footsteps of my own dance teachers, continuing the legacies of their teachings, and sharing the histories of our ancestors. A small tear peaks out of the corner of my eye as I become a tad emotional. For I am a Folklorista, one who endlessly loves her students, and shares her talent with all.

By Gabriela Mendoza-Garcia Ph.D.
My newest writing project is a bilingual children’s book called Todos a Bailar! A Folklorico Alphabet Book. Pre-orders are available with Del Alma Publications by clicking on the link below.

https://delalmapublications.com/collections/bilingual-childrens-books/products/todos-a-bailar-a-mexican-folklorico-alphabet-book

Books from my bookshelf

Digging Deep into Research

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As Folkloristas it is essential that we conduct our own research on the dances that we present while making efforts to learn new choreographies. There are so many things we can do to enhance our cuadros (choreography) by conducting our own research.

Search your own Dance Library

I often start my research at home scouring my home library for materials that I may need before teaching a new cuadro to my students. In it I have some classic texts that I always reference. (See my blog posts: Folklorico Books for Every Folkloristas Collection and Summer Reading for Folkloristas of All Ages). I also keep materials from any workshops that I have attended. I have all my eleven years of monographs from the Asociacion Nacional de Grupos Folkloricos (ANGF) conference which I always rely on for more information on costumes, music, history, and dances. I try to get different perspectives from scholars by reading materials from authors written during different time periods. So, for example I may read an article or book from Frances Toor to see her perspective on Veracruz dances during the early 20th century. Then, I may dig into something written by a current folkloristas by referencing my ANGF monographs.

Posing for the Camera as I Read a Book
Reading a Book

Look for out of Print Materials

I am always searching for copies of out of print materials. I usually review books available on amazon and visit used book stores for copies of books that are no longer in print. When they are for sale at a reasonable price, I buy them immediately. However, many rare books are not sold today. So, I often visit a university library. First, I utilize the on-line database called world cat. (https://www.worldcat.org/ ). This is a database for researchers. I log in and mark my hometown libraries as my favorites. For me, my favorite library is the University of Texas at Austin (UT) Benson Latin American Library. I search their database by submitting a subject, title of book, and/or author. This database searches for libraries all over the world to tell me where I can find my book. Then, I make a list of all the books and archival materials that I will need. Be sure to look for books, newspapers, monographs, videos, music, photographs etc. I e-mail the librarian in advance to let her know that I will be visiting and to ask for books that are in storage. You might be able to check out the books if you are part of the alumni association of the university or you belong to a library book lending program. In Texas, this is called Texshare and I signed up at my local public library. With this card, I am able to check out books from participating libraries all over Texas.

Books on my Bookshelf
Books on my Bookshelf
Books and More Books
More Books

Collect Oral Histories

I know this is so difficult to do because we are often working full-time and teaching dance but when we talk to people and get to know their perspectives…the rewards are endless. Meeting with people who danced, choreographed, or taught these dances and getting their life stories is so important. Sometimes, if I am unable to meet with anyone in person, I will begin a search on google and look for articles, news clips, on the people and places of the region that I will be presenting. Better yet, go out of your way to visit museums, libraries, and attend festivals in the United States and Mexico.

Watch Folklorico Concerts

One way I get inspired is to watch folklorico concerts of dance groups in Mexico and the United States. I pay close attention to the ways in which they use lights, props, backdrop, musical cues. I even notice the choreographic formations, costumes choices etc. This gives me ideas on things that I would do differently or keep the same.

Visit Mexico  

If possible, visit the state or region that you will be presenting. While you are there, watch their dances, meet the people, soak in the culture. This is vital.

My Thoughts

These are just a few ways that I research a cuadro before I present a suite of dances. I am sure that there are many other ideas. How do you research your choreographies before presenting them on stage?

Photos courtesy of Gabriela Mendoza-Garcia

Copyright, 09/01/2019, Mendoza-Garcia

Gabriela Mendoza-García Ph.D. is an Artist and Scholar. She has her own dance school and company called the Gabriela Mendoza-García Ballet Folklórico in Laredo, Texas.  Dr. Mendoza-Garcia founded this group in 2013 and teaches children and adults of all ages. Her company consists of seasoned folklórico dancers with years of experience performing this art form. She teaches traditional Mexican folklórico dance pieces, as well as, works that are inspired by her scholarly research. Her scholarship includes: Dancing throughout Mexican History (1325-1910), History & Folklore booklet with an accompanying documentary sponsored by the Webb County Heritage Foundation, The Jarabe Tapatío: Imagining Race, Nation, Class and Gender in 1920s Mexico published by Oxford University Press, an on-line blog, writings for Asociación Nacional de Grupos Folklóricos, and others.

Dancing Throughout Mexican History (132-1910)

How do Folklorico Dancers Embody the Son?

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 The Son -Mexico’s  Dance                                                                                                  

Mestizo folk music was born from the blend of the Indigenous and Spanish cultures in Mexico. In the seventeenth century, a new variety of generic song and dance, the son (peasant song) appeared. (Scholars today acknowledge the son as having mestizo, Indigenous, and African influences). As the son became popular, those sones which were native to a particular locale were called sones de la tierra. By the nineteenth century, sones were identifiable as typically Mexican. Sones are popularly sung and danced throughout Mexico. The huapango, the jarana, the Chilean son, the son jarocho, and the jarabe are all sones which stem from the Spanish zapateado steps, dances, and music. Most sones developed from Spanish peasant or rural music. A son differs from other music in its “form, rhythm, choreography, and textual content.” Its characteristic “unequal triple rhythm” is based on “patterns of six beats.”

Dancing to a Son
Independent couples dance sones, many of which are distinguished by the rapid action of the feet in a zapateado. The zapateado serves as accompaniment to the music when the rhythm of the dancers’ feet produce percussion-type sounds. The zapateado’s percussive accompaniment and many of the melodic instruments, such as the violin, stop while the lyrics of the son are sung. A zapateado produces its sound by the fast stamping of the feet on hard ground or on a raised wooden platform called a tarima. As “one of the universal traits of the son,” the zapateado is also a particular kind or type of son. Many of the sones from southern Mexico which are accompanied by marimba music are generally known as zapateados. Many of these belong to the repertory of sones de marimba or sones istmeños.

Lyrics of a Son
Lyrics for sones are usually written in rhyming couplets with eight-syllables in each line. The son usually opens with a dedication of the performance either to the gracious audience, to a particular important individual in the audience, or to beauty in individuals or in nature. The couplets of the sones often weave colorful tapestries of men and women in love surrounded by the beauties of nature. Malageña, a love overture to a girl from Malaga in Spain; Petenera, a tragedy about sailors set to unusually lively rhythm; and Indita, a description for the passion of Indigenous women are three typical sones that are appropriate for singing only.
In this book, Martinez-Hunter continues to describe the different types of dances that sones are performed to. These include the chilena, huapango, son jarocho, jarana, and the jarabe.

My Thoughts                                                                                                                                      

The sones and jarabes are still popular even today in the 21st century. We dance sones and jarabes from the states of Nayarit, Tamualipas, Jalisco, Veracruz to name a few.  A few of us living in the United States even create our own choreographies to the sones of Mexico.

Photos courtesy of Gabriela Mendoza-Garcia

Copyright, 10/14/2018, Mendoza-Garcia

Gabriela Mendoza-García Ph.D. is an Artist and Scholar. She has her own dance school and company called the Gabriela Mendoza-García Ballet Folklórico in Laredo, Texas.  Dr. Mendoza-Garcia founded this group in 2013 and teaches children and adults of all ages. Her company consists of seasoned folklórico dancers with years of experience performing this art form. She teaches traditional Mexican folklórico dance pieces, as well as, works that are inspired by her scholarly research. Her scholarship includes: Dancing throughout Mexican History (1325-1910), History & Folklore booklet with an accompanying documentary sponsored by the Webb County Heritage Foundation, The Jarabe Tapatío: Imagining Race, Nation, Class and Gender in 1920s Mexico published by Oxford University Press, an on-line blog, writings for Asociación Nacional de Grupos Folklóricos, and others.