Mariachi is a distinctly Mexican scene: musicians, replete with embroidered vests and hats, their rhythmic strumming and singing punctuated by staccato bursts of horns and violins, augmented by a happily dancing audience.
While it’s only a tiny part of the enormous wealth of the music produced in the country, mariachi has become Mexico’s best-recognized music.
At first glance, its origins seem straightforward enough, but the deeper historians dig, the clearer it becomes that they are actually steeped in mystery.
Even the word “mariachi” is itself a topic of debate — some linguists say it’s from the French word for marriage, pronounced mehr-ee-ahj, but others argue it has roots in an indigenous word for a certain type of tree, or is derived from a festival for a woman named Maria H., which in Spanish would be pronounced Maria Ache.
Mariachi music, like Mexico itself, is a cultural melange, one with deep roots in indigenous as well as European traditions. The instruments are European — the vihuela, the guitarron, the horns and the violins all come from Europe — but the son jalisco style of folk music from which mariachi evolved is thought to have indigenous roots. Mariachi also has a strong African rhythmic influence, brought along with the European slave trade.
This cultural mixture has created a vibrant, unmistakable sound that has infiltrated popular culture and become a cultural touchstone for people of Mexican descent across the world.
Now mariachi is making inroads into the United States, aided by public school music programs and a growing interest in Latino culture across the board. And the heart of this mariachi movement is San Diego’s South Bay, where Chula Vista’s Southwestern College was the first place in the country you could actually get a degree in mariachi music.
In that vein, National City’s Chamber of Commerce is showcasing mariachi groups from Mexico and the United States all month, culminating in the competition and festival itself on March 14 at Pepper Park.
The event is affiliated with the Mariachi Scholarship Foundation, a nonprofit group whose mission is to help mariachi programs and aspiring musicians throughout San Diego.
