On the origin of the petenera, as it happens with other styles of this art, there is no unanimity between the experts and scholars of flamenco. There are those who place it in America, since a jarocho style of music and dance, typical of the Veracruz region (Mexico), is also called petenera. Others, however, indicate that the origin of this style is Spanish.

At the time it was believed that the peteneras had Sephardic roots due to the references made in many of the letters, as we can see in this example: “where are you going, beautiful Jewish woman …“. The peteneras have a stanza of four octosyllabic verses that go on to become six or more due to the repetition of some of them. In addition, another verse is added in the form of rubble, the most common is usually “Mother of my heart”. The metric of the peteneras is governed by 6/8 and 3/4 bars, making their accents strong as follows 1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2 1-2 1-2.