The Romanesca is a melodic-harmonic formula popular from the mid-16th to early-17th centuries that was used as an aria formula for singing poetry and as a subject for instrumental variation. The formula was not to be viewed as a fixed tune, but as a framework over which elaborate ornamentation can occur. Documentation of the term is seen for the first time in 1546 in Alonso Mudarra's Tres libros de musica en cifra para vihuela as "Romanesca, o Guárdame las vacas" (“O let us put the cows to pasture”).

This Romanesca must have made its way to the shores of the New World where, after several centuries, it became the basis for one of the most popular songs from Western Venezuela. The "Polo Margariteño" is a folk song of unknown authorship that became widely known in the latter part of the twentieth century.

Polo Romanesco is a kind of postmodern "send-up" of the Romanesca progression as it weaves its way through bits and pieces of the "Polo Margariteño." The piece is full of surprises and juxtapositions—an attempt to go on a similar journey to the one these humble chords took many centuries ago across unthinkable distances. It attempts to bridge the gap between European and Venezuelan music, and in turn, points to a way forward in which music can be both old and new.