The Christmas season in Mexico starts on December 16 with "las posadas," a series of religious processions in which families or neighbors reenact Joseph's search for shelter for Mary en route to Bethlehem. Those representing pilgrims travel from home to home until they are finally accepted by those representing innkeepers at a home with…

Among Mexico's most original traditions is the holiday dedicated to honoring the dead, Dia de los Muertos, November 2. This tradition combines aspects that define the national spirit. At the same time that it is a solemn festivity to remember the dead, it becomes a fiesta in its own right. Death, more than a thing to be feared, becomes the motif…

The purpose of this study was to follow the development of mariachi music from its origin in the rural cultural celebrations of Mexico to its contemporary position in American music education. A dominant factor in traditional ceremonies, mariachi music emerged as the primary musical representation of Mexican nationalism in Mexico, a representation…

Each year on the eve of September 16, when the President of the Republic of Mexico has rung the church bell that once hung in the belfry at the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows in the small town of Dolores Hidalgo, he has once more proclaimed Independence Day. When Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla rang that same bell on September 16, 1810, he rang it…