Discover mariachis, one of Mexico’s most famous musical traditions and one of the country’s most popular musical genres.

What are mariachis? 

The music that reigned in Mexico a few centuries ago consisted of flutes, drums (made of wood, dry mud and snails). It was an essential element in all sacred rites . The arrival of Christianity and the Spaniards in many regions brought new instruments: violins, guitars, harps, and other wind instruments. Local musicians have not only learned to play with them but also to make them, sometimes designing them from their imagination and perception.

Music and dance were important elements in Spanish theatrical productions, popular around the world during colonial times . There were therefore orchestras that accompanied the theater composed of violins, harps and guitars. From these groups come many genre of music in Mexico, among others, the mariachis .

The instruments used in a mariachi band are very varied. Basically, they are strings (guitar, violin and guitarrón) and trumpets, but there are formations that also make use of musical instruments of indigenous origin, such as the huehuetl and the teponaztli or even sometimes others. instruments like the flute, harp or accordion, depending on the region.

The garment of the mariachi is a mixture that combines the clothes of the foremen of the haciendas with those of the elegant landowners who were, among other things, wonderful horsemen, known in Mexico as chariots. To crown this ensemble, we have the inevitable straw hat that covers this character, a sort of cowherd or cowboy in the Mexican imagination.

By the middle of the 20th century, the mariachi became a true symbol of Mexico and its music spread to all Mexican society, from the richest to the poorest. Mariachi is an integral part of the culture and there are no parties, festivities or celebrations without it. There is no marriage without mariachis and without mariachis there are neither baptisms nor burials.

The origin of the word

It was long believed that the word mariachi was a local interpretation of the French word “marriage” and that it referred to musicians who performed at local weddings during the French occupation in western Mexico. This version, however, was definitively discarded in 1981, when in the archives of a church a letter dated 1848 (more than ten years before the French occupation) was found in which a local priest was already complaining. the noise the mariachis made. The most commonly accepted version is that the term mariachi comes from the Cocula region , known as the world birthplace of mariachi, where the Coca Indians so called a musician in the 16th century.

Many musicologists have asked themselves the question. According to interpretations, it is a derivative of the word “marriage” inherited from the French era when Maximilian was Emperor of Mexico. According to this legend, the mariachi was named by the French, during wedding celebrations. But this legend was completely denied, with the discovery of the use of this word in a document which dated from before the arrival of the French in Mexico.

Now, most scholars believe the word “mariachi” originates from native roots . It derives from the name of the wood with which we made the boards on which we danced to accompany the rhythm of the local music. As a mexicophile, we will settle for a much simpler explanation. “Mariachi” expresses an art of living , one of the most interesting and festive musical concepts in the world.

Queen Isabel sang rancheras

The Mexican films of the forties and fifties have been instrumental in spreading the image of the mariachi. Movie actors who wanted a successful career inevitably had to be singers of ranchera (Mexican popular music) and sing accompanied by a group of mariachis. Actors like Pedro Infante or Jorge Negrete have made a career thanks to their gifts of singers and riders. Chilean writer Hernán Rivera Letelier explains in an interview that the expansion of Mexican music in Latin America was due to the fact that Mexico was the first country to develop a film industry on the continent.

In his novel “La Reina Isabel cantaba rancheras” (translated into French as: “Queen Isabel sang songs of love”), Letelier depicts the sordid world of saltpetre exploitation in northern Chile, through the intermediary of the character of Queen Isabel, a prostitute who had multiple gifts but, above all, a pronounced taste for music ranchera.

The love for Mexican music is not an isolated phenomenon and there is an incredible craze for this music in countries like Colombia, Peru or Venezuela. In these countries and many others in Latin America, it is customary to pay for the services of a group of mariachis to “give the serenata” to brides or to set the mood in ceremonies of all kinds.

Garibaldi, the cradle of the great stars

The Place Garibaldi , located in the historic center of Mexico City, is the most important forum mariachis in the Mexican capital. In this plaza one can listen to and engage bands playing songs to order for a very reasonable amount of money and many people come to this place to have a few glasses of tequila and hear their favorite song, the one that connects them to their story or the love of their life.

Many legends of Mexican popular music have passed through Garibaldi Square before being known on the international scene. Among them, José Alfredo Jiménez and Chavela Vargas are two giants out of Garibaldi.

The former is recognized almost unanimously as the best composer of Mexican popular music and as the founder of a style characterized by passion and emotionality. The lyrics of his songs are always about love or breaking up. They also talk about alcohol because, in a macho culture, a man’s tears can only be explained by drunkenness. With the help of alcohol, the song turns into a confession and fate is better accepted. José Alfredo Jimenez died at the age of 48 and left hundreds of songs: many are true jewels of popular music such as “No volveré”, “Paloma Negra”, “Ella” and “Si nos dejan”.

The second, Chavela Vargas, was a close friend of Jimenez. She knew not only fame but also hard years of alcohol addiction, which she ended up conquering almost by miracle to return once again on the big stages. His particular style has made his success: a strong voice that can turn into a whisper or a lament, making his songs even more heartbreaking.

Chavela Vargas, who died in July 2012, was a character against the tide: she dressed like a man, smoked tobacco, drank excessively and carried pistols. She got to know Ava Gardner, Rock Hudson and developed a very close friendship with Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Picasso, Neruda and Gabriel García Márquez, among others. Her life was intense until the end and those who knew her all remember her the same way: a strong personality, tenacious, lively and dynamic, able to celebrate her ninetieth birthday by making a jump parachute, with a touch of madness.