Mariachi Music Guide: A Brief History of Mariachi Music

Mariachi music is a genre of Mexican music noted for its ensemble groups of exuberant performers dressed in matching attire. Mariachi refers to the musical style and the individual band member in mariachi groups, which typically feature four or more performers who sing and play traditional folk music instruments, including a high-pitched, five-string guitar called a vihuela, a bass guitar called the guitarrón, violins, and trumpets.

In Mexican culture, mariachi ensembles are staples of joyous events, such as family celebrations, weddings, or birthday parties. The groups are also called upon to lend an element of cultural authenticity to Mexican-American events or Mexican restaurants and other establishments serving Mexican cuisine. Mariachi is so closely linked to Mexico’s cultural identity that the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognized it as an Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2011.

Traditionally, mariachi groups were ensembles from Mexico and parts of the United States made up of a group of men, as personified by Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, a folk ensemble of mariachi music that Gaspar Vargas founded in the late nineteenth century. (Scholars frequently cite Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán as the longest-running mariachi group in history.) Modern groups have expanded the mariachi tradition to make room for women mariachi musicians and mariachi groups from non-Spanish-speaking countries.

Here is a brief overview of the genre’s history and evolution:

• Beginnings: The history of mariachi music begins in western Mexico in the nineteenth century, though the exact date and location remain unclear. The meaning of the word “mariachi” is also a subject of debate, with some sources suggesting that the term derives from “mariage,” the French word for “wedding,” related to musicians’ wedding performances during the French intervention in Mexico in the 1860s. However, the discovery of a letter written by a priest a decade or so earlier complaining about the sound of mariachi music seemingly disproved the term’s link to weddings.
• Birthplace debate: The mariachi tradition sprung from regional Mexican music called son jalisciense, which employed instruments brought to Mexico from Spain like the guitar and violin. The term “jalisciense,” meaning “from or related to Jalisco,” refers to the Mexican State of Jalisco. The town of Cocula, like many regions in western Mexico, has laid claim to the title of “birthplace of mariachi.”
• Formation of the sound: By the early twentieth century, groups that performed son jalisciense began to adopt many of the tenets associated with a traditional mariachi band. They donned the elaborate garb of the Mexican charro, or cowboy, and performed in public venues and spaces, including Plaza Garibaldi in Mexico City, which remains a focal point for mariachi after more than a century.
• Regional pride: Significant cultural and political changes in the early twentieth century affected the mariachi tradition. The Mexican government, seeking a way to create an image of unity in the wake of the Mexican Revolution, used the image of the mariachi as an emblem of Mexican culture. The government promoted this image of pride by using mariachi bands at political events and the new medium of film, radio, and sound recordings. As mariachi rose in popularity, musicians adopted elements from Cuban music and American jazz and shorter songs to accommodate a 78 RPM record.
• Mariachi hits the US: By the mid-twentieth century, a wave of immigration introduced mariachi to the United States, and the first reported US mariachi group, Nati Cano’s Mariachi Los Camperos, made its debut in Los Angeles in 1961. During this period, Mariachi was also incorporated into school curricula in southwestern cities like San Antonio, Texas, introducing new listeners and performers to the tradition.
• International success: By the 1970s and beyond, mariachi was celebrated throughout the United States and eventually the world through major music events like the Mariachi International Festival in Guadalajara, Mexico, and a host of new bands. These events included all-women mariachi groups, mariachi ensembles from non-Spanish-speaking countries such as Sweden, Croatia, and Egypt, and even genre hybrids like the heavy metal mariachi group Metalachi. Mariachi music is among the most popular Latin music formats on Spanish-language radio stations in the United States.

There are several notable characteristics of mariachi music, including:

1. 1. Attire: Early mariachi groups wore white shirts and pants with huarache sandals. Musicians adopted the traje de charro, or charro suit, in the early 1920s, drawing upon the garb of charros from Jalisco. The traje de charro features fitted trousers, a waist-length jacket, boots, and a few accessories, such as wide-brimmed hats (called sombreros) and silk ties. Many mariachi costumes are elaborately brocaded.
2. 2. Instruments: Traditional mariachi groups featured four or more players performing with two variations on a set of similar instruments. Mariachis from central Jalisco employed two violins, the five-string, lute-shaped vihuela, and the six-string guitarrón. At the same time, groups from southern Jalisco and Michoacán traded the vihuela and guitarrón for another five-string guitar, the guitarra de golpe, a five-string guitar, and a Mexican folk harp. Musicians added trumpets to the mariachi sound in the 1950s. Modern mariachi groups feature two trumpets, a vihuela, a six-string guitar, a guitarron, and up to eight violins.
3. 3. Songs: Mariachi groups perform a wide variety of traditional Mexican canciones, or songs, from ballad-like corridos and serenades to folk music like sones and rancheras, or music accompanied by specific dances, like jarabes (folk dance for couples). Songs from other cultures, such as European polkas, can also be part of a mariachi song list. Musicians can sing mariachi songs in various styles, from boleros (romantic) to huapango (in falsetto); since audiences frequently request songs, mariachis must be familiar with many compositions.

There are many popular mariachi musicians, including:

1. 1. Juan Gabriel: One of the most influential Latin American performers of all time, singer/songwriter Juan Gabriel—also known as “El Divo de Juárez”—enjoyed incredible popularity among generations of music listeners for his dramatic delivery. Gabriel sold sixty million albums which bridged the gap from traditional music like rancheras to Latin pop while also devoting considerable time and energy to charitable causes. His death in 2016 drew tributes from, among others, US President Barack Obama and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.
2. 2. Pedro Infante: Pedro Infante was a beloved figure on record, radio, and film in Mexico and many Spanish-speaking countries during the 1940s and 1950s. An elegant figure with a powerful and polished singing voice, he specialized in many forms of mariachi music like rancheras, which he frequently performed on-screen in more than 60 films. Following his death in a 1959 plane crash, numerous statues, street dedications, and a brief animated cameo in the Disney-Pixar film Coco honored the icon. His granddaughter, singer-songwriter Lupita Infante, is a Grammy-nominated mariachi performer in her own right.
3. 3. Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán: For five generations, Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán has performed and preserved traditional mariachi music from Mexico. The group, which debuted in the late 1890s, performed at the 1934 inauguration of Mexican president Lázaro Cárdenas, and three years later, made their first recordings. Silvestre Vargas, the son of the group’s founder, Don Gaspar Vargas, served as a band member and director from 1931 until 1975, arranging and writing countless songs for the group and other performers, including Pedro Infante. The band gained considerable exposure in the United States while backing Linda Ronstadt on her 1987 album, Canciones de mi Padre, and subsequent tour.

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