One of my favorite things to do is listen to rancheras y mariachi music y corridos y tu sabes…….todas las mas chingonas canciones Mexicana‘s.

It also brings back memories of my childhood when mi mamai escuchaba her favoritos grupos. I remember Los Temerarios, La Mafia, Vicente Fernandez, Yolanda Del Rio, y muchos mas, would be playing on any given morning.

Oh……and the smell of Pinesol! If the musica came on, that meant it was time to stop being a huevona and help mami clean the house.

Music is like a time machine…that only teleports you back to yesteryears. How I wish I could go back to when mi papi was alive. I really would love to see him happy again. And listening to his favorite corridos mas padres!

Some of you know what a Mexican grito is, but many of you may not know. Well I’m not really sure of a technical definition of it but I’ll try to explain it.

A grito is a “yell”,”scream”, or a “shout”that has to be belted out at the perfect time during a song that’s really captivating your entire soul and being.

It’s like the song has hypnotized you and you can feel multiple emotions throughout the song. Like feeling sadness, grief, aching, longing, longsuffering, pain, joy, happiness, valiant, strong, in love yet heartbroken, and more, all during the song.

The song is so powerful that it transcends the person listening and or singing. And I personally think it’s something every Mexican can do and that it was a gift given to us by our ancestors. No te creas! I don’t know…maybe I should go out and do a poll just to test my theory. But really, it’s not so hard, even los kids can do it.

I still listen to rancheras in the car with my own children. And I try to translate as much of the song as I can to my children.

I tell them about practicing their “gritos“, because this is tradition you know. And they must know, that the timing and execution of the grito is critical.

If you have never heard a grito you can search YouTube for some fun videos so you can witness the power of the grito.

So turn the musica on amigos y amigas. Let‘s pass down this valueable information to our hijas y hijos.