Move Over, Guys — Piel de Barro Is Here to Play
For generations, the orquesta jaranera — the brass-and-percussion ensemble that drives Yucatán’s beloved traditional music — has been almost exclusively a male domain. That changed on the night of April 15, when nine women took the stage at the Palacio de la Música in Mérida and performed as Piel de Barro, the first all-female jarana orchestra in the state’s history.
The debut, held in the Patio de Cuerdas on World Art Day, drew a crowd that filled the open courtyard and ended with the audience calling for an encore. The group obliged with Danzón Elodia, leaving to a wave of applause.
Dressed in finely embroidered ternos and adorned with flowers and bows, the nine musicians opened with Piel de Barro, the song that gives the group its name. The name itself is a deliberate tribute — it honors Angélica Balado, the celebrated Tekax-born songwriter who wrote the song and whose compositions helped define contemporary Yucatecan trova. Balado died in January 2024 at 63. The orchestra honored her with a tribute at the start of the evening.
The set that followed drew from the deep well of the regional repertoire. Pieces like La mestiza, El maquech and La Perla del Sur came alongside a playful adaptation: the classic Timbalero was rechristened Timbalera — a small but pointed nod to the group’s all-female makeup. A medley of Juan Gabriel songs, reworked into jarana rhythms, had the audience singing along. Jarana dancers Glendy Yadira Pool Moo and Juan Carlos Moreno Carrillo joined the musicians onstage, zapateando through several numbers as the crowd clapped in time.
The nine members — Karen Rosales Coral, María José Chi González, María Fernanda Chi González, Reyna Aracely Garrido Dzib, María Fernanda Garrido Kantún, María José Marrufo Lizama, Elsy Paloma Ku Eliodoro, Guadalupe del Rosario Encalada Góngora and Hana Hazel Martínez Paredes — come from different municipalities across Yucatán. The group’s stated aim is to preserve and promote the state’s musical heritage from a feminine perspective, in a genre where women have historically appeared mostly as dancers and singers rather than instrumentalists.
The concert was organized as part of the Secretaría de la Cultura y las Artes (Sedeculta) music outreach program, which supports independent projects and emerging talent through free public performances. Among those present were Sedeculta’s director of artistic development, Pablo Herrero Quezadas; the director of the Palacio de la Música, Adele Urbán Flores; and Pedro Carlos Herrera López, director of the Orquesta Típica Yukalpetén.
The jarana has deep roots in Yucatán, blending Maya, Spanish and Afro-Caribbean influences into a sound built around intricate footwork, rhythmic brass, and call-and-response bombas — humorous verses shouted mid-dance that bring the music to a halt while a dancer improvises a rhyme. It remains the soundtrack of the vaquería, Yucatán’s most storied folk celebration, and is performed weekly in Mérida’s city center for locals and visitors alike.
About Piel de Barro
- Yucatán’s first all-female jarana orchestra
- Named for the song Piel de Barro by Tekax songwriter Angélica Balado (1960–2024)
- 9 members drawn from municipalities across Yucatán
- Debut performance: April 15, 2026, Palacio de la Música, Mérida
- Supported by Sedeculta’s Programa de Difusión Musical
- Learn more about Sedeculta’s cultural programs
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