Boleros to Serenade on Mother’s Day in Mexico

I grew-up in Xalapa, Mexico, listening to boleros.

Every night, my father used to tune-in to his favorite radio show “Trios Famosos” in the late 60s.

Of course, back then, I could care less about this music.

It was only in my late teens when I began to appreciate the meaning and the practical purpose of boleros.

Songs like “Decidete” or Make Up Your Mind would prove useful in my late teens, when I learned to play the guitar.

Every couple months, I’d get together with a few friends and we’d pick songs to sing to our girlfriends, in the wee hours, by their bedroom windows.

Believe me, there are songs for every emotion and we knew most of them: from sugary love to heartache to splitsville, there are boleros for all matters of the heart.

These are lyrics to the song “Locura” or Madness.

“Everything has been a dream, you deceived me, I was not your owner. Only your perfume, like a cruel martyrdom, brings me the distance. When I dream of you at night, I live that moment of ours. I want to remember it as a diadem of my misfortune, because to go looking for it, to revive it, is madness.”

Ahhh. Those adolescent years…

Among the most popular boleros are those made famous by Mexico’s trio Los Panchos, the group credited with popularizing the genre.

The trio Los Tres Reyes has a new album that pays tribute to the legacy of Los Panchos with a few of the boleros from their vast repertoire.

This one’s called “Contigo-With you”.

Their song “Contigo” or With You is the kind of bolero you’d sing in a serenade to your beloved.

It could also be a good song to play on this “Diez de Mayo”, “Mother’s Day” in Mexico.

Just make sure you remember who you’re serenading.