Mexican Rancheras

Rainbow label variation. No Music is more representative of friendly, neighboring Mexico than the immensely-popular ranchera. Capitol presents this attractive and entertaining package with the renowned vocal due, Los Centauros, and petite Dora Maria as the featured artists. Both are extremely popular in Mexico today, on television and radio as well as on Musart records. There is nothing subtle, nor is there anything complex, about rancheras. They are purely and simply songs of the people, with every-day subjects and basic, uncomplicated melodies. Easy to hum, easy to whistle, easy to sing, the ranchera is essentially a rural music somewhat similar to the "hillbilly" or "western" music of the U.S.A. It also is stongly related to the old Spanish romance. Some may remember a few year back, to 1952, when a crew of men diligently digging ditches near the village of Santa Isabel Iztapan - just north of Mexico City near Texcoco - uncovered the aged but easily-recognizable bones of a great mammoth. The discovery made no news until it was learned that a man-made arrowhead was still imbedded in the animal's rib-cage. This established the fact that man did, indeed, inhabit the great Mexican valley at least 12,000 years ago. Rancheras must be nearly that old, too!