La Cucaracha-song

Origin of La Cucaracha

This time I want to introduce the origin of; La Cucaracha, but will not believe that I will write about the origin of the insect cockroach, no, it is about a very popular Mexican song.

  

The origin of this song, well, rather "corrido" is not known for sure, although it is speculated that it could be of Spanish origin, but there is no reliable source who claims to certainty.

For this same point it is not known what year it was created. But this corrido is already mentioned in the year 1883 and possibly longer existed to 1818. It is said that with the songs "La Adelita" and "La Valentina" form a trilogy of songs that speak about the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) . Many people argue that "La Cucaracha" is the oldest of the three, this corrido became very popular exactly at the time of the Mexican Revolution.

La Cucaracha is anonymous and there are different versions of this corrido, but the best known version is of Rafael Sanchez Escobar, pianist from Veracruz, who was invited by the military, that gladdened victory obtained in battle. He chose a song he had heard as a child, adapted it to the piano, and then became very popular among the military in the north.

Although the chronicler of Sabinas, Hector Trevino Villarreal says that the most popular version of "La Cucaracha" was composed in a bar in the center, located in the street Zaragoza.

And Antonio Guerrero Aguilar (writer), says "La Cucaracha" began to sing in a bar in the center of Monterrey when Villa's men drove the carrancistas in 1915. For its part, the researcher corridos of the border, Armando Hugo Ortiz , he said that has not been found clear evidence that points to "La Cucaracha" began to popularize in Monterrey.

There are also many interpretations about who was the Cucaracha, some say it was the nickname of a soldier who smoked marijuana, others mention that was the name of the car (a Ford T) of Francisco Villa, who had no gasoline, although it is said was that the Cucaracha could be anyone as illustrious Mexicans: Francisco Villa, Venustiano Carranza, Francisco I. Madero, etc. 

Anyway, the corrido is part of Mexican culture and the chorus is easy to learn.

Note: The corrido is a musical genre in Mexico which tells the true story of a real person and / or mythical, important moments, to honor and show respect to a person or to a town. Songs can deal with political issues, historical events and relationships. The corrido played an important role in the history of Mexico as a source of information on movements, victories and losses of the revolution. Corridos are still very popular today in Mexico.