Ranchera

Ranchera is the classic song genre of Mexico: the repertoire of the mariachi, sung with full-throated emotion over violins, trumpets, guitarrón, vihuela and guitar. Taking its name from the ranchos of the countryside, it formed in the decades around the Mexican Revolution and was carried nationwide by radio, cinema and the great singing idols of the 1930s–1950s. Its compact verse-and-refrain songs, in waltz and polka-derived meters, treat love, betrayal, homeland, horses and national pride, punctuated by the grito, and composers such as *José Alfredo Jiménez* gave it a standard repertory that remains central to Mexican musical identity.