ÚLTIMA PARADA: RANCHERA
How do Ranchera songs end? Two notes: “Tan-tán”! The satisfying sound of completion.
Like The World/El Mundo, El Tan-Tán announces your triumphant arrival at the finish line. You made it! If you get El Tan-Tán in a reading, consider it the ultimate mic drop. You did a thing, and you’re on top of the world, carajo!
At the beginning of this journey, El Walter encouraged you with the four elements and a magic chancla wand. Here, here Lola Beltrán holds two double-chancla wands, plus the combined gritos of her four compañeras. AJÚA! Are you feeling the collective power? How will you celebrate your accomplishment? What song will you blast? Consider Lola’s last line in “La Chancla,” as she belts out: “¡Que la chancla que yo tiro / No la vuelvo a levantar!”
Nuff said.
♫ “La Chancla,” as sung by Lola Beltrán
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If you didn’t know…the “tan-tán” are the two notes, often a down-up sound, played at the end of ranchera songs. Ranchera is a genre of traditional music in Mexico dating before the 1900s that is still played regionally today. Mexican musicians inspire from the four corners: Amalia Mendoza, Lucha Reyes, Lucha Villa, and Chavela Vargas. At the center is Lola Beltrán who is known as one of Mexico’s most acclaimed singers of Ranchera and Huapango music.
This is part of our Winter 2022-23 issue featuring Chancletazo for Your Soul by Marlène Ramírez-Cancio, The Tarot Issue.
