Los Caballitos (Little Horses)

This dance is reminiscent carousels with horses installed at fairs and carnivals.

The dance was compiled by Rafael Manzanares Aguilar in the city of Yoro, department of Yoro.

El Caballón

This dance originated from the village of Las Quebradas, municipality of Talanga, department of Francisco Morazán. This dance was danced in the pastorelas and comedies commemorating the national holidays. The name of the dance is inspired by the horse, specifically in its elegant walk, because it was the principle means of transport of those times. The dance was informed by Mrs. Pascuala Zúniga Valladares and Professor Herlinda Flores, compiled by Mr. Ramón Cecilio Fúnez in collaboration with Professor Alba Gladis de Hernández and Leonor Galeano.

La Coyota

Dance in the form of a circle with penance. The dancer who does not stop and hold his partner when the music stops, passes the center of the circle to pay a penance, which consists in imitating in a festive and ridiculous nature of animals and some people.

This dance was ompiled by the folklorist Rafael Manzanares Aguilar in the city of La Esperanza, department of Intibucá. This dance was danced after drinking the famous infernal punch, a hot drink of pineapple, guaro or arguadiente, and spices, to revive the dancers in cold weather.

La Galopa (The Gallop)

The dance was informed by Tomás V. Narváez and compiled by Professor Tania Pinto de Morán and Auxiliadora Narváez, in Pespire, department of Choluteca. According to the informant, the dancers danced with great elegance imitating the trot of the trained horses brought from Spain, displaying figures like a wide gallop demonstrating the elegance of horses trotting in rows and the turns while imitating the high kicking step.

El Garrobo

This dance was compiled in the village of Cacautare, in Pespire, department of Choluteca, by Oscar Guevara, was informed by Mr. Miguel Salazar and Ubaldina Suazo de Salazar. This dance was danced in the feasts of Cacautare. Before starting to dance, the man invites the girl with a white handkerchief as a sign of delicacy and respect. The woman with the movement of hips forms the tail of Garrobo as a sign of coquetry and flirting, and the man accepts the proposals by moving his head.

El Gavilán (The Hawk)

In this dance the dancers represent a hawk, a hen, and a chick. During the dance, the hawk tries to steal the chick, but the hen will not let it. In the end the rooster enters and chases away the hawk.

La danza fue recopilada por Rafael Manzanares Aguilar en el caserío El Chichicaste, Danlí, departamento de El Paraíso.

El Torito Pinto (The Little Painted Bull)

The peoples of southern Honduras remember with this dance the old bullfights that caused joy and excitement for the public. The dance was compiled by the folklorist Rafael Manzanares Aguilar, in the communities of La Esperanza, Intibucá, and Alianza, Valle.

The Torito Pinto dance is very old and shows us clearly the evolution made in the two styles when mixing indigenous and Spanish. The survival of the indigenous melody is distinguished in some versions, but shed at the courtly rhythm. The Torito Pinto dance is a pantomime with dancing and singing, imitating or interpreting in its own way a Spanish bullfight. Traditionally the dancers, both men and women, are dressed picturesquely with bright colors, fringed hats and paper flowers. The dancer who acts as a bull wears a costume secured at the waiste made of painted cardboard and paper imitating the bull-headed animal. He dances in the middle of the circle made by the group. They all wear a red scarf that they thrust at the little bull, and he demonstrates his gallantry in the rodeos of the dance.

The dance group is made up of a dancer who fastens a frame that simulates the shape of a bull, variously lined with painted cloth, with a glued and painted cardboard head of any color, usually red. The bull dances in a very original way, has a rhythmic and elegant rhythm in a 3/4 beat and flaunts pirouettes and agility imitating the nervousness of movements of the lanced bull.

The whistle and the drum accompany the dance with a son, in rhythm of six eighths very chopped and moved; the melody is very suggestive and encouraging, awakening in the listener that enthusiasm and joy so immediate when listening to music with Spanish influence. It is a closed circular dance. The dancers do not lose their way, cadences or closed style of the dance for even a single moment in spite of the bullfights of the group or the onslaught of the torito.

Folkloric song "El Torito Pinto"

Echame ese toro pinto, chinita,
que lo quiero conocer,
a ver si tiene calzones, chinita, o naguas como mujer.

Échele que le eche el toro, chinita,
échele entre la gente, chinita,
es que ese torito quiere
una copita de aguardiente.

Échame ese toro prieto, chinita,
hijo de la vaca gacha,
quiero sacarle una suerte, chinita,
delante de mi muchacha.

Échale que le eche el toro, chinita,
échele sin cuidado, chinita,
es que ese torito quiere
una copita de anisado.

Pero vea, amigo qué toro tan bravo,
que con las orejas me quiere cornear;
déjemelo, amigo, que está sofocado,
que de la cola al toro lo voy a agarrar,

A ña Chepa la vide, con la panza pelada,
con la música dentro y la puerta cerrada (bis)

Pero ve amigo que toro tan bravo,
que con las orejas me quiere cornear,
déjemelo amigo que está sofocado,
que de la cola al toro lo voy a agarrar.

El Zopilote (The Vulture)

This whimsical dance was inspired by the walk and jump of the vulture, an abundant bird of prey in Central America.

The dance was compiled by Rafael Manzanares Aguilar in the municipality of Yuscarán, department of El Paraíso.

In this Honduran allegory, a vulture lives a gluttonous life, and after eating two entire donkeys, one fat and one skinny, meets a premature end. This jocular tale leads to a traditional funeral among humble campesinos in a small village. Friends and families of the dead gather. Campesinos leave their labors and arrive from the fields to find solace in one another. The men playing cards and drinking together while the women are tending to both the dead and the living. When the time comes, the men lift up the corpse and all join in procession to the cementary, trailed by the alcoholic relative who has turned to his bottle to escape sorrow.

Among variations of the tale, here's one.

¿De dónde viene zopilote?
Con el pico amarillo brillando.
Con el pico amarillo brillando.

Vengo de San Rafael,
de comer un par de burros,
uno flaco y el otro gordo.

¿De dónde viene zopilote?  
Con ese andando al compás 
Vengo de abrir el juzgado 
Que me han hecho juez de paz 

¿De dónde viene zopilote? 
Con el pico amarillando 
Vengo de las piedras gordas, 
He andado colmeneando. 

Ya el zopilote murió, 
Arrimado a un paredón. 
Y a las viejitas dejo 
Las canillas de bordón. 

Ya el zopilote murió, 
En medio del corredor. 
Y a las muchachas dejo 
El pico del prendedor. 

Ya el zopilote murió 
De una comida de queso. 
Y para ustedes dejo 
Las arrugas del pescuezo. 

Ya el zopilote murió 
Ya lo llevan a enterrar 
Entre cuatro zopilotes 
Y en cuenta un ratón.

Where do you come from vulture?
With the yellow beak shining.
With the yellow beak shining.

I come from San Rafael,
where I ate a couple of donkeys,
one skinny and the other fat.

Where do you come from vulture?
With that walk to the beat
I come to open the court
Where they have made me justice of peace

Where do you come from vulture?
With the yellow beak
I come from the big rocks,
I've been walking around.

The vulture is dead,
Close to a wall.
And I leave the old ladies
My quills as canes.

The vulture is dead,
In the middle of the alley.
And to the girls I leave
My beak as a hairpin.

The vulture is dead,
Of a big meal.
And for you I leave
The wrinkles of my neck.

The vulture is dead,
They take him now to bury
Among four vultures
And the account of a mouse.