Anyway, I did another “project”. I’m not sure if anyone really is interested in these, or what I think I achieve by doing them but here goes: Mariachi.
Vicente Fernandez Estos Celos.
La Bikina
The music to accompany the below.
José Alberto, a street serenade.
Outside the San Juan de Dios market a strange sight is to be seen. Groups of men dressed in fancy mariachi get-up hang around for hours on end. They pass the time leaning on cars, talking amongst themselves, looking ever so provocative on the corner. To the untrained eye these immaculately coiffured cowboys could seem untoward, but to those in the know, these men have one simple desire – to sing for their supper. This is the Plaza de Los Mariachis, there only exist two such places in the entire world and it’s not terribly surprising to find one in the birthplace of Mariachi, Jalisco.
Mariachi is a fascinating tradition and the Plaza of the Mariachis even more so. The obvious thing to do was to go and have a chat with the serenaders and see if we couldn’t get a rendition or two. One afternoon after a delicious Mexican lunch of stuffed peppers and frijoles Ellie and I headed to the market to say ‘Hola’. The first genuine Mariachi we met, David Flores, donned in green told us he had been a Mariachi for 10 years. We didn’t get much more out of David as he suddenly looked agitated, explained that his group had got a job and ran down the street to join a troop of similarly garb-ed bards heading in the same direction. It must be exciting indeed to hire a Mariachi band and suddenly find 9 or 10 of them running towards you at great speed.
This is of course the reason the Mariachis are there, to be contracted for an event, a wedding or funeral (often the dying make a list of songs they want performed), a Quincenera (a big party Mexicans have when young girls turn 15) or the increasingly less popular in the age of facebook and bbm, serenade. The impromptu band-hiring manages to keep a fair amount of Tapatios in employment. Unperturbed by our new friend’s dramatic exit we continued on the hunt for performers. Benjamin and Jose were on hand to help explain to Ellie and me exactly what the modern Mariachi does and how he ended up doing so. Unsurprisingly, we found Mariachi to be on the whole a family tradition. Until recently you were only allowed to join the bands of the Plaza if your father too had been a Mariachi. What did surprise us was the lack of options these men had. Three of the Four Mariachis we spoke to had not chosen the career and in fact were stuck in it. As youngsters they had gone to Mariachi school, studied hard to improve their technique and now middle aged and older they knew how to do nothing else. Being a Mariachi was their only option to feed their families. Despite this several still hoped their children would follow in their path, only making sure they finished their regular schooling first.
The Plaza de Los Mariachis is the cubicle-hell of between 40 and 50 Mariachi groups, each with at least 7 members, usually 10. The official Union of Mariachi musicians stipulates the number of musicians that can be counted as a Mariachi band; less than seven? Sling it cowboys. They patrol the Plaza day and night (Tuesdsay and Wednesday being days off), taking turns on shifts waiting for someone to require a musical accompaniment to whatever event. Traditionally they were often hired for serenades, but those were the times when contact between courting couples was kept minimal and so the employment of a group of elegantly adorned Mariachi players was one of only a few options to show ones affection. I can’t decide if this is a lovely lost tradition or not…. Miguel, valentines next week – a serenade would not go amiss….
So how much would the hire of a serenade set my dear boyfriend back? Considering the size of the acoustic assembly, the meagre fee of 2500 pesos an hour seems a good deal to me. That’s about £120 out of which the band pay their own transportation. Gigs are not necessarily few and far between though. Jorge explained that although some days they can be waiting for hours on end, others they can be running around town from one job to the next all day long.
Naturally competition between groups is rife. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays especially so, these are the days they don their most lavish garments to impress prospective audiences. The Mariachi attire is descended from the days of the Charro, basically a Mexican cowboy who attended Mexicanised Rodeos and wore a big hat. Over time the splendid sombrero has been lost, apparently the headwear is an expensive investment which often gets mistreated at parties. Fair play. The pistol too has been left by the wayside “you can’t carry guns in the street”, a fine point. The most common suit is all white, but all colours of the rainbow can be seen adorning the Plaza.
Although Mariachis are loyal to their band, after 9pm members are free to join with other bands to form what are known as “Bolitas”, groups of Maraichis not yet tired enough to call it a day who play together, either for fun or professionally. I suppose they must learn from the other groups too, being a Mariachi is a constant fight to better ones technique, learn new numbers and the like. In fact, the Plaza players are pretty low down on the Mariachi-rung. Jorge hopes one day to join a more professional and simply better crew who don’t spend their time waiting around the marketplace.
The rise of the Mariachi wasn’t an entire natural process. The Jaliscan tradition was rocketed to fame by the Mexican nationalism project. Mexico has never been a united country and the constant years of wars and disruption that are now nostalgically known as the “Revolution” left it shattered. In order to form the coveted “nation-state” symbols and images were chosen and fed to the people. We are the same people, we all like mariachi and tortillas. Thus Mariachi was blasted on the radio, in the streets and later on the television. The popularity of the Mariachi peaked in the 1950s and 60s, nowadays the media feeds us poor schmucks Banda constantly, I’d much prefer Mariachi to be honest. Mariachi continues to play a very important role in Mexican culture, not just for these rare players of the Plaza. In September Guadalajara hosts the International Festival of Mariachi. Mariachi wannabes from as diverse corners as China, Japan, USA, South America, Canada, Italy attempt to match up to the original Tapatio sound. Yet as José boasted to us, none are as good as the Guadalajara Mariachis – the original and the best. So the Mariachi tradition is still going strong and has spread, apparently it now enjoys considerable fame in the U.S.A where Mexican migrants have introduced the tradition.
All girl mariachi groups now exist too, there are at least 2 such groups in Guadalajara as well as mixed groups. Mariachi music is not going anywhere anytime soon.
Just to keep y’all updated, I’m in a much more positive mood since the start of the blog post. One college from work gave me some Tetley’s tea bags and as it’s a miserable rainy day, proper tea and a Mexican version of a scone have perked Ellie and me up no end. So here's a cheesey picture of us having a nice time at the waxwork museum.
K.
