Mariachi Music
The following article is a bit of research I did for my Spanish cultural project.
When one first encounters mariachi music, it is typically a shock. Living in Los Angeles I was surrounded by many things Hispanic. I could walk a few blocks to one of my favorite restaurants, El Tarasco’s. It was owned and operated by a second generation family of Mexican immigrants. One could flip through the FM/AM stations or local broadcast TV stations and always find something on in Spanish: a soap opera, esl, or the usual mariachi. Even with the plethora of Latino culture, I never knew much about the actual origins of Mariachi music, until this report.
The word mariachi refers to a group of musicians dressed in silver studded charro outfits with wide brimmed hats playing a variety of instruments, such as: violins, guitars, basses, vihuelas (a five string guitar) and trumpets. The outfits of the mariachi come from the traditional outfit of Jalisco horsemen. I can understand that they would wear wide brimmed hats to keep the sun off because of their origins in the southern part of the state of Jalisco. The pants and overcoats that they wear must create a very muggy environment, even though the state of Jalisco, is mostly above 3,000 ft in elevation.
There are many theories as to how the word came to refer to the group of musicians. The original theory held that mariachi was derived from the French word for wedding - mariage, because of the type of music played at these events. The only problem with this theory is that the music originates in a part of Mexico the French never visited and, even it they had, it began before their arrival in 1864. Another theory states that the word comes from the indigenous name of the Pilla or Cirimo tree, whose wood is used to make guitars. If this were true then the word mariachi would be applied to the instrument itself and not to those who play it. Yet another theory suggests that the name comes from a festival in honor of a virgin known as Maria H. (mah-ree-ah AH-chay) at which musicians played and that over time they were given this name.
In the 19th century, most Mariachi were roaming laborers moving from one hacienda to another. With the revolution, however, many of the haciendas were forced to let the Mariachi find their own way. The mariachi then wandered from town to town singing songs , and carrying news from one place to another. The Mariachi took to playing in public venues for tips. Their songs speak of machismo, love, betrayal, death, politics, revolutionary heroes and even animals. For example the famous: “La Cucaracha”.
A video I picked up from YouTube that I thought might show a bit more about the look and feel of Mariachi music.