Mexico Music and Sports

Music in Mexico

At the core of Mexican culture is its Music. The foundation of Mexican music comes from its indigenous sounds and heritage where the original inhabitants of the land, used drums, flutes, gourd rattles, sea shells and voices to make music and dances. This ancient music is still played in some parts of Mexico. Much of the traditional contemporary music of Mexico was written during the Spanish colonial period. Folk songs called “corridos” have been popular in the country, since the 16th century. It may tell the story about the Mexican Revolution, Pride, Mestizo, Romance, Poverty, Politics and Crime issues. It is not uncommon to also hear a blend between ancient and more contempary music today.

Mexico is also known for it's musical groups known as Mariachis perform along streets, festivals and restaurants. Mariachi groups includes singers, guitar, trumpets, violin and marimba players. In 2011 UNESCO recognized the Mariachi music as an Intangible Cultural Heritage, joining 6 others of this list from Mexico. Folk dances are regarded to be one of the most
important features of Mexican culture and one of the most significant of this dance tradition is the "Mexican hat dance", known as "Jarabe Tapatío."

Sports in Mexico

Mexico is also know for its participation of most competitive sports. In 1968 Mexico hosted the XIX Olypmic Games and has hosted the FIFA world cup soccer tournament twice in 1970 and 1986.

Footbol (soccer) is considered Mexico's most popular sport, and has a very competitive league with most states having their own representative teams. Among the country's significant teams include Club América, Chivas de Guadalajara, Cruz Azul and Pumas de la UNAM. Notable world stage players include Hugo Sánchez, Claudio Suárez, Luis Hernández, Francisco Palencia, Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Jared Borgetti, Rafael Márquez, Pavel Pardo, Ramón Ramírez, Jorge Campos and Oswaldo Sánchez.

Mexico also has a strong boxing tradition, having produced world champions such as Julio César Chávez, Salvador Sánchez, Érik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Manuel Márquez and Jesús Chávez. Other popular recreational activities include lucha libre (Mexican professional wrestling), baseball (which in some regions is considered more popular than Soccer) fishing, scuba diving, Jai alai, cockfighting, and basketball. The traditional national sport of Mexico is Bullfighting and Charreria but has a relatively small following.

Read about Mexico's cuisine and holidays >