Expert: Daniel Hogan - 4/23/2006

Question
Our school is planning to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with a variety of activities.  I'm in charge of dance and music.  Can you point me in a direction as to the music they like for this celebration and the dances they like?

Answer
Since this is a history question board, I have to answer in a historical sense. Cinco de Mayo is a celebration originally of and by one city in Mexico, the city of Puebla. Until about 20 years ago, no one outside of that city and state celebrated this event. Now it has become a defacto Mexican Fourth-of-July, which is historically incorrect.
So knowing that, if you want to be historically correct, you would need to put on a dance and music of not only that period (1860's), but for the state of Puebla, as opposed to "Mexican" music and dance. Puebla was a Spanish colonial city and had/has a very unique culture which is traditonally very European, therefore, a European dance would be most historically acurate.
But, not only would this take more time and effort, most would not understand and therefore, the more common "Mexican" dances and music are used.
Also another factor is the ages of the students. Older (4th grade and higher) could do the more popular Mexican Hat Dance called "El Jarabe Tapatio". Younger students would be easier to teach the children's Mexican dance called, "La Raspa".
Music again historically accurate would be European waltzes and such, but more popular Mariachi music is used today.
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