BREAKING: A beer was thrown at President Trump during a press conference this afternoon in Washington. Trump was unharmed. Since the beer was a draft,... he was able to dodge it.
Mexican mariachi comes from western Mexico, especially Jalisco, Michoacán, Colima, Nayarit, Guerrero, and the Pacific coast, where West African, Indigenous, and Spanish communities lived, worked, and formed families under colonial rule. West African rhythm, polyrhythms, call and response, and zapateado shaped how mariachi sounded and moved, while Indigenous ceremonial traditions and Spanish instruments came together inside communal gatherings called fandangos.
The African roots of mariachi were later pushed out of view as the music became nationalized and whitened, even though West African influence remains central to its rhythm and structure. Recognizing mariachi as part of the West African diaspora gives the music its full history and helps explain why it sounds the way it does today. 🇲🇽