At the most southern part of the Mexican Republic you will find the distinctive sounds of the Yucatecan Trovathis is the term to define the style of a song that was popular in the early twentieth century. This tradition began in Cuba, but also similar music was in several other Latin American countries like Puerto Rico, Colombia and Mexico. The musical serenades and style of singing a duet with guitar accompaniment at the time was fashionable, and then it evolved into a true folk art.

Soaked in the rich romanticism of the late nineteenth century, the musician songs combined lyrical poetry with the sensual rhythms of the Caribbean, such as the key, bolero and bambuco. In those days there was no radio. There were traveling musicians who wrote and performed these songs. Some of them would become legendary figures in the history of Latin American popular music.

In Mexico the songs of the Yucatan Peninsula, are known popularly as “Yucatecan trova“, and they belong to this category.

“The Yucatan Trova” is considered a national treasure, and is also the result of a literary and musical culture that flourished between 1900 and 1940 in the city of Merida, at which time the act of serenading and the art of trova formed an essential part of social life in that city.

Yucatecan songs used many Cuban rhythms, for example, the bolero, the habanera and the Colombian bambuco. These are the fundamental rhythms for most of the repertoire of Yucatecan trova. “The Yucatecan Trova” is a sublime tradition of our amazing Yucatecan land that shows the people that our country is not like any other.

Trova here is a joy and a part of our culture: musical culture and literary culture, but not to be confused with: the fact that a Yucatecan composed song does not mean that these are songs from Yucatan, unless they have the exquisite qualities that must be included in letter in its music and its interpretation.

Every Thursday at 9pm in the Park of Santa Lucia you can enjoy the Yucatecan trova music and poetry. It is free entry into this event.