Mexican Hat Dance

Description

This is the national dance of Mexico, also known as ‘Jarabe tapatio’. It emerged during the nineteenth century as a courtship dance, and has its roots in popular Hispanic dances brought over during Spanish colonization in the sixteenth century. The dance was soon banned by the colonial religious authorities as it was considered morally offensive, but this only served to make it more popular as a form of protest against foreign domination. Thus when Mexico gained its independence in the early nineteenth century, this dance was assured its status as the country’s national expression of freedom.