Garibaldi, a taste of Mexico
By Oswaldo Mejía Mendiola

Plaza Garibaldi is a place unique in the world to enjoy Mexican vernacular music.

Each weekend, hundreds of visitors come to the Mexico City plaza, located on Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas in Colonia Guerrero, to listen to mariachis and sing songs that delight couples in love, as well as students, the elderly and visitors eager to sing and dance. 

Marriage engagements, wedding anniversaries, birthdays, love proposals, school graduations, or just the fact of being alive are some of the reasons to go to this bohemian place, which owes its name to José Garibaldi, a Mexican Revolution general from Chihuahua, who fought alongside Francisco I. Madero. 

As night falls, Plaza Garibaldi becomes a constant concert of norteña music, of sones jarochos (music from Veracruz) and polka. Couples who find in music a point of communion and romance often request trios. 

At the rhythm of “El son de la negra,” “Cielo Rojo,” “El mariachi loco,” Las Mañanitas or “Amor eterno,” people dance and sing to abandon themselves to festivities. Many have enjoyed enough beer or other beverages to cheer the heart and make the shyest soul uninhibited. 

As a complement to the festivities, small restaurants offer antojitos mexicanos so visitors can recharge their energy with a bowl of pozole or birria, or if they prefer, some tostadas, quesadillas, pambazos, cecina, tamales oaxaqueños, mole, carnitas or barbacoa. 

With a full stomach and happy heart, one can join the chorus surrounding the mariachis and strain the vocal cords singing to a lost love or to the ungrateful, to the unfortunately platonic or one who chose another, to the one only interested in money or the one who left us for our best friend. To sing is what is really important.

And what about dancing? Garibaldi is also a place to tap one’s feet with the rhythm of the most successful popular music and even with covers of famous songs such as “La Macarena.” A visitor can buy a song for 100 pesos and can dance in front of the musicians and curious who watch the show, and sometimes join the party, although they do not know the reason for the celebration. 

If you are looking for fun to take home, mariachis from Garibaldi offer serenades of 10 songs for 2,500 to 4,000 pesos, which many are happy to pay if they are trying to recover, consolidate or get love.

Fun extends to the square’s surroundings, where visitors may visti nightclubs such as Tenampa, Anochecer Tapatío, Guadalajara de Noche or Salón Tropicana, where they can enjoy folkloric ballets, Mexican singers, rooster fights and other amusements to enliven a very Mexican night.

For those looking for a different musical option, but without leaving the square, there are some places where they can swing their hips with the rhythm of cumbias, salsa, meringue, danzón and other genres. It does not matter if you do not have partner; Garibaldi is also a place to meet people. 

The party in this corner of the Mexican capital city would be incomplete if you did not taste the different beverages: tequila, mescal, aguardiente, aguamiel, tepache and pulque. Liquors are for sale on every corner of Garibaldi, where you also find the absentminded who have enjoyed their drinks too much. 

Celebrations at Garibaldi usually end at dawn. In the early morning, one can still listen to “El Jinete,” “Cucurrucucú Paloma,” “Cielito Lindo,” “La vida no vale nada,” Noche de Ronda,” “Mujeres Divinas” and the traditional and legendary “El Rey,” sung by hurt lovers and narcissists.

Before leaving, though hoarse and weighed down with tequila, one can buy jorongos (ponchos), charro hats, marionettes, caballitos tequileros (small tequila glasses), serapes and silver jewelry to take home or give as a present—a little bit of Plaza Garibaldi, a little bit of Mexico.