Cinco de Mayo

About this episode

This episode explores the sound of Mexican national pride through three historical recordings related to Cinco de Mayo.

This week’s Three Tune Tuesday heads south of the border for Cinco de Mayo, tracing the sound of Mexican national pride through three recordings from the acoustic era. We open with a happy accident of the calendar: Arthur Pryor’s Band recorded Franz von Suppe’s “Jolly Robbers Overture” on this very date in 1909, a piece of spirited Viennese theatricality that had been delighting concert audiences since 1867. From there we travel to Mexico City and July 1907, where Victor dispatched a recording team to capture the country’s musical culture on disc — baritone Manuel Romero Malpica delivering Miguel Lerdo de Tejada’s danza mexicana “No lo diré,” followed by the Banda de Policia de Mexico under Velino M. Preza playing his march “Viva Mexico!” Together, these three recordings offer a rare glimpse of how Mexico sounded to itself, and to the world, at the height of the Porfiriato.

People in this episode

Hosts: Boneapart, Yulia

Topics covered

• Cinco de Mayo
• Mexican national pride
• acoustic era recordings
• musical culture
• historical music

Keywords

• Cinco de Mayo
• Mexican music
• acoustic recordings
• Arthur Pryor
• Manuel Romero Malpica
• Velino M. Preza
• Porfiriato

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Victor

Books & works: Jolly Robbers Overture, No lo diré, Viva Mexico!

Places: Mexico City

More episodes of Blind Skeleton's Three Tune Tuesday

• D-Day · June 9, 2026 · 60 min
• Double Middles · June 2, 2026 · 32 min
• The Billy Murray Story · May 25, 2026 · 52 min
• Victoria Day · May 19, 2026 · 1h 1m
• Preventative Health (The Purge) · May 12, 2026 · 49 min
• April · April 28, 2026 · 53 min