TRADITIONAL MEXICAN LYRIC: CHARACTERISTICS AND GENRES - LITERATURE - 2024

The traditional Mexican lyric refers to a set of popular expressions such as songs, sayings and verses. These are compositions that have been preserved through time thanks to oral tradition.

They are characterized by their irreverent content and social criticism. For this reason, they have also become a cultural resource that accounts for different historical moments with their respective political realities.

Literary Skulls are unique expressions of Traditional Mexican Lyric.

Mexican popular music is characterized by the cultural miscegenation that gave rise to it. This mixture was caused by the Spanish colony, a social process in which European music, indigenous music and black music met.

Due to its popular and multicultural origin, in most cases its authors are unknown. Even, in many cases, it is difficult to establish if their true origin is Mexican or they have previous origins in other cultures.

Characteristics of traditional Mexican lyric

The traditional Mexican lyric has very diverse expressions in terms of forms and themes. However, there are common characteristics among all of them:

- They use resources such as inconsistencies, lies or exaggerations with the aim of capturing ridiculous realities. Among these resources stand out the couplets about animals that can communicate with human beings.

- They use a colloquial and popular language, representative of the customs and traditions of the different regions of Mexico. They do not take into account the norms established by the language academies, but thanks to this characteristic they achieve the objective of reaching the least literate populations.

- Their language tends to go beyond the rules of courtesy. It is usually irreverent, dirty and eschatological. This resource is sometimes used in order to highlight social realities or simply to demonstrate opposition to established rules.

- They have rhymes, they make use of rhetorical figures such as metaphors and personifications. In addition, they present a certain humorous style, full of puns.

Genders

Each genre has its own themes. All topics are related to everyday life, such as parties, social and political events, love affairs or youth antics.

Among these genres are literary skulls, children's lullabies and rondas, couplets, popular songs such as corridos, tongue twisters, sayings and albures.

Here are some of these genres:

The literary skulls

They are short Mexican poetic compositions in the form of an epitaph that appear on the Day of the Dead. They are characterized by their satirical style and their main themes are death and criticism of people's attachment to material goods.

However, the first skulls date from the time of La Colonia. They are attributed to Mother Matiana of Tepozotlan and are considered a mixture between the Spanish and Mesoamerican cultures.

Later, during the Mexican Revolution, the first skulls would appear printed in El Socialista, a left-wing newspaper. Its content was intended to mock the customs of Mexican high society and its claims to resemble European society.

A bit of the humorous criticism present in this genre can be seen in this example:

The corridos

It is a popular Mexican musical genre that narrates events from different periods in the country's history. It has its origin in Spanish Romance, a traditional genre that tells the stories and adventures of knights.

The Mexican corrido had its greatest boom during the Mexican Revolution. During this time he was a source of information for the crowds on the news and the exploits of the revolutionaries.

“La Toma de Torreón” is a good example of the corridos that narrated the events of the Mexican Revolution:

Throughout history, corridos have become the vehicle for other narratives. They have also spread tales of lovers or tragic events, which are always testimony of Mexican culture and customs.

In recent decades, the corridos have incorporated new themes related to the current problems of the population. For example, the most frequent issues in contemporary corridos are immigration and drug trafficking.

The albures

They are puns with sexual content, malicious and with double meaning. Like most popular expressions, it is difficult to pin down its origin. However, they are associated with a sign of disobedience to the rules of courtesy imposed.

There are albure duels where mental agility and improvisation capacity are put to the test. It is considered that the best "alburero" is the one who can respond quickly and manage to embarrass the interlocutor.

The albures have received criticism for their macho connotation: the "albureros" are always men, while women are the object of these phrases with a double sexual meaning.

These are some examples:

The sayings

Sayings are sharp, sententious expressions that convey advice or a moral. Authority is usually conferred, as his wisdom is considered to come from ancient times.

Sayings often reflect the customs of the population. This can be seen in the words they use, but also in the metaphors that refer to domestic animals or country customs.

For example, in the saying “Mule mule horseman, kick kick or recoil”, malice is represented in business. This phrase invites us to distrust businesses that do not seem innocent.

Another example is the saying "Cacarachando is easy, the difficult thing is to put". It represents doubt in the face of the promises that precede actions, but they do not seem secure.

The verses

The verses are short musical compositions written in verse. Although they are mostly of popular origin, this genre has also been worked on by poets such as Cervantes and Machado.

The popular expressions of this genre address very diverse topics, from everyday events to philosophical problems. However, they always do it with a simple language and close to the customs of the people.

The use of popular language can be seen in this example:

References

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2. Cascante, M. (2012). Mexican sayings. Recovered from: abcblogs.abc.es.
3. Of Skulls. (SF). Literary Skulls. Recovered from: decalaveras.com.
4. Study and learn. (SF). Traditional Mexican Lyric. Recovered from: estudioraprender.com.
5. Fuentes, A. (2012). Mexican Coplas. Recovered from: anguardia.com.mx.
6. Alternate minds. (SF). Mexican Albures, what are they? Examples and Meaning. Recovered from: mentesalternas.com.