Earlier this month, Rocks Off contributor and all-around nice guy Jeff Balke enlightened us with this little list of songs that are standard operating procedure at weddings. But as much as I love "Twist & Shout" and "YMCA," in my very Mexican experience, those songs were not what I was used to hearing when one of my hundred or so cousins got married.
DJs at Mexican weddings certainly have their own arsenal of go-to canciones to pack the dance floor, from huapangos to cumbias, rancheras y más. As my primo Gustavo Arellano so eloquently writes, "...while Southern California is chockablock with banda sinaloense, Chalino Sanchez wannabes, rancheras, sierreño, sonidero, and conjunto norteño (and the mashing of them all), the Texas airwaves play a different style... grupero, tribal, and northern Mexico-style cumbias rule."
So in that respect, the songs on this list may not sync up exactly with Mexican wedding songs in Califas, or in Chicago or New York City for that matter, but if you are ever invited to a wedding here in Houston or anywhere in South Texas, I bet this list accurately reflects the experience.
So put on your pointy boots and listen up to the following:
10. "La Vivora De La Mar"
This is something like the Mexican "Chicken Dance." Basically, the bride and groom stand on chairs while the male and female guests take turns conga dancing under the extended arms of the newlyweds and the bride's wedding veil. Then you take off the groom's shoes and throw him in the air. Fun stuff.
9. "Huapango Redoblando"
A huapango is a fast-paced, accordion-driven song that can be line-danced by a couple or in a group. Starting with your left foot, you tap it twice in front of you, then alternate the movement with your right foot, shuffling forward with every cycle. About a million times. What better way than to sweat off the fajitas you ate at dinner?
8. Any cumbia by Fito Olivares
Fito Olivares y La Pura Sabrosura are the masters of the cumbia, and their saxophone-laden sound is always fun to dance to at Mexican weddings. Fito and his brother Javier, may he rest in peace, are from Ciudad Camargo, Tamaulipas, but the group calls Houston home. "Juana La Cubana," "La Gallinita," "El Cholesterol"... we could have chosen literally thousands of Fito songs, but "Aguita De Melon" is one of my favorites.
