In Mexico and many parts of the United States (particularly the Southwest), Mariachi music is an integral part of the fabric of life, accompanying transitions from birth to death: birthdays, quinceañera celebrations, marriages, baptisms, graduations, retirements, and even funerals. Popular Mariachi songs are woven in one way or another into the experiences of Mexican and Mexican American families - sung in the family, listened to on the radio or smartphone, presented at community gatherings, shown in classic films and contemporary telenovelas.

A Mariachi - which typically consists of an ensemble of at least eight musicians who play varying combinations of guitars, violins, trumpets, vihuela and a guitarrón (a small guitar and a large bass guitar), as well as several singers or at least one soloist, all dressed in striking charro (cowboy) suits - is an unmistakably bright and sonorous symbol of Mexican identity.

This musical heritage is not confined to Mexicans or Mexican Americans, however: it has been popular in other Latin American countries since the mid-20th century, and over the past few decades it has become a pan-Hispanic phenomenon in the U.S., and an internationally known genre. Indeed, in 2011 UNESCO declared Mariachi music as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, based on the richness of its musical repertoire and its capacity to strengthen the “sense of identity and continuity of its communities, within Mexico and abroad.” UNESCO also recognized it as an example of “cultural syncretism” that could “foster mutual understanding and dialogue.”i

How has Mariachi music evolved from a folkloric expression born in North-Western rural Mexico around the late 18th century to a globally recognized musical phenomenon?

Historical Roots in Mexico and the United States: From Folkloric Expression to Symbol of Identity

According to anthropologist Jesús Jáuregui, Mariachi music today represents both “culture as lived experience” – the actual, daily expression of fluid popular sentiments - and “culture as emblem” - an ideal construct meant to represent certain fixed values.ii This is the result of two distinct phases in the history of Mariachi music: an initial development of folkloric expression, and a modern phase of consolidation as a symbol of shared identity.

Precursors of Mariachi music from the 18th to early 20th century

Ethnomusicologists and historians concur that, as a popular, folkloric expression, Mariachi music was the result of spontaneous mixing, during the colonial period, of local indigenous and Spanish musical influences, making it a typically mestizo product.iii As a musical practice spread across the large Spanish colonial province of Nueva Galicia from approximately the second half of the 18th century, it is considered a “macro-tradition” whose origin cannot be traced to a particular place and time, and which was expressed in many forms.iv Thus, the precursors of Mariachi music were local variations of music that can only be gathered together under one genre due to three factors: the similarity of the string instruments that were played, particularly the combination of harp, violin, vihuela and guitarrón (local adaptations of instruments brought from Spain, which may have also been influenced by indigenous instrumentsv); dances based on Spanish zapateado; and the type of compositions  – regional jarabes and sones.

These forms of music were performed at local gatherings and popular festivities, generally accompanied by a dance known as fandango - characterized by a fast rhythm and performed on a tarima (platform) that served as a drum and amplified the sound of the footwork – and often by drinking as well, leading to censure by local elites and church authorities.

During the momentous events of the 19th century – Mexico’s independence, the Westward expansion of the United States and the Mexican American War that ceded half of Mexico’s territory to the U.S. – this diverse, popular cultural expression now termed “Mariachi music” was present in both Northwestern Mexico and the Southwestern United States. As noted by the eminent ethnomusicologist Daniel Sheehy, Mariachi music is a deeply rooted, “binational” popular musical expression, not a “foreign” import to the U.S.vi Indeed, some of the earliest historical references to the precursors of Mariachi music are from California, such as the 1829 description of a dance in San Diego, that is similar to the famous jarabe tapatío.vii There is a description of an 1845 fandango in California where various popular sones were played by an early Mariachi-style group. viii

Although the origins of the word Mariachi itself are unclear, one theory is that it is related to the indigenous Cora word for a dance platform or stage made from a particular type of wood.ix The first clear reference to these popular fandangos as “Mariachi” music was in an 1852 letter from a distraught priest to the government authorities, regarding the indecent behavior of the townspeople at the outdoor Mariachi dance.x In the late 1800s, there are further references to Mariachi as either the dance platform itself or the overall music associated with the dance.

The first decades of the 20th century marked a period of decisive change and expansion of Mariachi music. A few jarabes and sones (including the Jarabe Tapatío, one of the most popular Mexican dances up to today) were transcribed for piano, elevating them to middle-class status, and the Mariachi Cuarteto Coculense was sent from Jalisco to Mexico City to play for President Porfirio Díaz’ birthday and to showcase folkloric music for a visit by the U.S. Secretary of State, in 1907. A U.S. recording company also made the first recording of Cuarteto Coculense at this time.xi

As a result of the social, economic, and political upheaval of the Mexican Revolution, the 1910s and 1920s saw waves of migration from rural to urban areas. This led to the appearance of many rural music groups in Mexico City, where Mariachi styles mingled, and became more widely known among urban middle classes. Two main forms of rural Mariachi – one with two violins, a harp and a guitarra de golpe (5-string guitar), and one (used by the Cuarteto Coculense) that included two violins, a vihuela and a guitarrón – were combined during this period; one or more trumpets were also added in later years, creating an urban model of Mariachi that is the base of today’s form. xii

Thus, as an expression of popular culture, Mariachi music evolved from a long process of constant, spontaneous adaptation on the part of its performers to changing local conditions, retaining aspects that were still considered valuable or useful by its audiences, and shedding those aspects that were becoming anachronic in the current environment.

At the same time, however, Mariachi music in its current form is also a cultural “emblem”, a cohesive genre that is the result of very concrete historical efforts, in both Mexico and the United States, to mold it into a symbol of national or ethnic unity and pride. This stage in the history of Mariachi music (part II) will be explored in the forthcoming issue of HO. •

iUNESCO, Intangible Cultural Heritage,Decision of the Intergovernmental Committee: 6.COM 13.30, at: https://ich.unesco.org/en/decisions/6.COM/13.30

iiJesús Jáuregui, “El Mariachi: Símbolo Musical de México”, Música Oral del Sur,No.9, 2012, p. 234.

iiiIbid., p.224.

ivIbid., p. 223.

vThere is a debate as to whether the vihuela and guitarron were influenced by indigenous string instruments of the Cora people, which were made out of armadillo shells. According to several historians, there needs to be further research in order to prove this hypothesis, which is currently unsubstantiated. Jorge Amós Martínez Ayala, “¿De Cocula es el mariachi?... Mitos sobre el mariachi. Una breve revisión historiográfica y una propuesta desmitificadora”, p. 3-4.Undated document provided by Lucas Hernández Bico, expert in traditional Mexican music and Musical Programing Director at Instituto Mexicano de la Radio (IMER), who also provided useful links to other resources for this article.

viDaniel Sheehy, “Mexican Mariachi Music: Made in the USA”, inKipp Lornelland Anne K. Rasmussen, The Music of Multicultural America,University Press of Mississippi, 2016,p. 150.

viiJáuregui, op.cit., p. 224.

viiiAlvaro Ochoa, La Música Va a Otra Parte,pp.79-82, cited in “Mariachi Music in the U.S.”, at: Mariachi Music in the U.S. -Mariachi Music

ixJean Meyer, “El orígen del mariachi”, Vuelta No. 21, August 1998, p. 119.

xIbid., p.117.

xiClark, 1993, p. 9, cited in Sheehy, op.cit., p. 144.

xiiSheehy, op.cit., p. 147.