The Jarabe Tapitío
Mexico City
POR JOSEFINA KAPP
The Mexican Hat Dance
The Jarabe Tapitío, better known as the Mexican Hat Dance, was born during the Mexican Revolution as a from of national unity. It symbolized Mexican culture inside and out of Mexico. It became so popular that at one point it was declared "National Folk Dance" of Mexico. Anna Pavlova, the Great Russian Ballerina, who visited Mexico in 1919, fell in love with the dance and made the Mexican Hat Dance part of her repertoire.
Interesting Facts
Jarabe, translated to "sweet syrup," and the dance is called the Jarabe Tapatio because of the sweet courtship between the couples.
It originally included singing and became widely spread all over Mexico up to around 1920 as a fashionable expression.
The typical male and female costumes to dance it were used one hundred years apart from each other. The China Poblana was the female servant outfit of the early to mid 1800's. The charro suit decorated with silver buttons, came about with the emergence of the Mariachi around 1930 after going through numerous evolutions, from the hacienda supervisors to the modern urban musicians.
Mexican Hat Dance