Mexican New York City

Mexican Culture in New York City (Lei Xu/Dreamstime)

Mexican Culture in New York City essentials include the Cinco de Mayo Parade, Mexican Independence Day Parade, Ballet Hispánico, Ballet Nepantla, Calpulli Mexican Dance Company, Dzul Dance, Limón Dance Company, Flor de Toloache, México Now Festival, and Guadalupe. 🇲🇽

More Mexican Culture

Sponsors

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Mexican Artists

Antonio Sánchez is a multiple Grammy-winner and Golden Globe-nominated jazz fusion drummer. 🇲🇽

Diego Rivera is a Mexican muralist whose work affected both Mexican and American culture. 🇲🇽

Flor de Toloache is New York City’s first all-female mariachi. 🇲🇽

Frida Kahlo has become a global icon of Mexico, Indigenous Peoples, Women, and LGBTQ+ communities. Her work shows a level of self-awareness that is striking in both this world and the next. She is more famous now than her famous husband. 🇲🇽

Jarana Beat is a New York Mexican fandango band. 🇲🇽

Julieta Venegas is a Grammy and Latin Grammy-winning Mexican Latin alternative singer-songwriter. 🇲🇽

Natalia Lafourcade is a Grammy and Latin Grammy-winning Mexican Latin alternative singer-songwriter. 🇲🇽

Reik is a Mexican alternative or pop band that makes beautiful love songs. 🇲🇽

Mexican NYC

Mexican Americans are New York’s third-largest Latin community, and the largest in the United States.

As of 2020, there are about 321,000 Mexican New Yorkers, around 13% of New York’s Hispanic community. The community grew about 10% since 2010, and is New York’s second fastest-growing Latin community.

New York Mexicans live mostly in Bayside, Brooklyn; Staten Island; and Queens. The Upper West Side and “El Barrio” East Harlem also have Mexican communities.

Art in Mexican NYC

Mexican Cultural Institute New York is the cultural department of the Mexican Consulate. It regularly presents programs in the Octavio Paz Gallery. mciny.org 🇲🇽

Mexican Dance in NYC

New York City has many excellent Mexican dance companies. The most unexpected one is Limón Dance Company, because José Limón was one of the pioneers of modern dance.

Ballet Folklórico Mexicano de Nueva York is a Mexican ballet folklórico dance company. @bfmny

Ballet Hispánico is a contemporary dance company with a Mexican American founder, and a strong Mexican choreographer. 🇲🇽

Ballet Nepantla is an award-winning contemporary dance company that explores cultural in-between-ness by dancing Mexican folklore as contemporary ballet. 🇲🇽

Calpulli Mexican Dance Company is a strong community folkloric dance organization with a touring company and teaching artists. 🇲🇽

Dzul Dance is a New York/Campeche Mexican dance company that fuses dance, aerial arts, contortion, and acrobatics into a unique bridge between contemporary art and historical heritage. 🇲🇽

Limón Dance Company is the legacy of Mexican modern dance pioneer José Limón. 🇲🇽

Mazarte is an Indigenous Mexican dance company based in The Bronx. mazarte.org 🇲🇽

Mexican Dancing in NYC

La Boom night club hosts New York’s most popular Mexican party on Sunday nights. You can dance banda, corridos, cumbia sonidera, norteño, and more. 🇲🇽

Mexican Festivals in NYC

Mexican Food in NYC

Mexican food has become American food.

Corn, the Mexican and the American starch, was bred from teosinte, a wild grass in Central Mexico. Native Americans brought it up the Mississippi River.

Mexican Government in NYC

The Mexican Consulate and Mexican Cultural Institute New York are in Murray Hill, Manhattan.

Mexican Music in NYC

Regional Mexican is America’s most popular Latin music. Latin rock started in Mexico.

Mexican Parades in NYC

The Mexican Independence Day Parade NYC Desfile de La Independéncia de México is a parade and cultural festival in Port Richmond, Staten Island on or around Mexican Independence Day, September 16. 🇲🇽

Mexican Culture

Mexican culture is one of the cultures that defines American culture. The western two-thirds of the United States was once New Spain, which became Mexico, so we have a lot in common.

Mexicans are among the world’s hardest working people.

Mexican culture is mostly Indigenous with Spanish and African influences. Mexicans are the descendants of the great Olmec, Maya, Aztec, and other Mesoamerican civilizations. There are even some Asian influences because Acapulco was the American side of Spain’s colonial trade with Asia.

Mexico, not Spain, is the center of contemporary Hispanic culture. Mexico has the world’s Largest Spanish-speaking population. The United States is fifth.

Mexican Art

The Whitney Museum of American Art said that the biggest influence on American art was not the Europeans, it was the Mexican muralists.

Mexican Festivals

Big Mexican festivals include:

Posadas Navideñas (Christmas caroling community processions) are famous.

Mexican Film

Mexico has a strong film industry. The country’s proximity to Hollywood helped it develop. Legendary Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel worked in Mexico from 1946-1953, just as the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema was peaking.

Mexican Food

Corn, which feeds America, was developed in Mexico, so was chocolate.

Mexican Music

Regional Mexican is America’s most popular Latin music. There are many forms including: mariachi, banda, norteño, and tejano. Mexican cumbia has been popular since the 1940s. Latin rock started in Mexico.

Mexico

Mexico is a big, diverse country.

It’s mostly Indigenous with a Spanish colonial overlay. It also has an African Diaspora community that contributed a lot to Mexican culture.