Jorge Rodriguez pauses for just a brief moment when asked why he performs mariachi music.
“Initially, it was because it made me happy. It made me forget about the world,” says the San Jose-based trumpet player and leader of Mariachi Estelar. “It became about me wanting to make others happy.”
Centuries after the birth of this regional Mexican music style, which dates back at least to the 1700s, mariachi remains a cultural and artistic force that touches the lives of countless listeners.
That’s certainly true in Northern California, where mariachi music thrives in Mexican-American communities in San Jose, Hayward, Oakland, Vallejo and other cities big and small. On any given weekend in the Bay Area, Rodriguez says, “There’s mariachi out there — in someone’s backyard.”
You’ll also find it played at clubs and theaters, as well as large public gatherings like last summer’s inaugural Silicon Valley Mariachi Festival, which drew crowds last June at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds.
“We were not expecting that many guests — 1,500 — because it was the first time,” says Rodriguez, an event co-organizer. Plans are already underway for the festival’s sophomore swing, scheduled for June 15 at the fairgrounds again.
And it’s not the only high-profile mariachi event on the calendar for those warm weather months. The Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose will also host its popular Fiesta del Mariachi on July 26.
Besides underscoring the importance of mariachi in the Bay Area, these festivals also help introduce this beloved music form, typically performed with guitars, violins and trumpets, to younger listeners.
“For younger generations to be exposed to mariachi is very important to me,” says Edgar Ochoa, community engagement director for San Jose’s Mexican Heritage Plaza. “The reality is that some of the younger generation may have no interest in the music, but the option is on the table.”
These organizations’ greatest allies in the quest to spread the love of the art form are, of course, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and other relatives who continue to turn to mariachi for the soundtrack to family gatherings and other special occasions.
“We’re pretty much booked every weekend,” says Mariachi Estelar’s Rodriguez, who also runs the Silicon Valley Mariachi Foundation. “When there is a need for a celebration, we are definitely on people’s minds. We bring life to the party”
You’ll hear mariachi performing at weddings and funerals, baptisms, birthdays, quinceañera and Catholic mass as well as holiday parties.
“We are a part of a lot of people’s lives,” Rodriguez says.
And in a time when the things that divide us often take center stage over the things that unite us, mariachi is one of the precious ways that people from different generations can connect.
“Mariachi is able to bridge the gap between youth and grandparents,” Rodriguez says.
Some may worry about the future of mariachi in the Bay Area and beyond. “Families can’t help but think that the tradition is somehow dying off,” Rodriguez says. “We are so consumed by mainstream media.”
Those concerns serve as a type of rallying cry, though, to the art form’s supporters and purveyors.
“It’s part of our culture,” says Raymundo Coronado, director of the Hayward-based band Mariachi Mexicanismo. “And we need to keep it alive.”
Mariachi is in Coronado’s blood.
“I’m third generation in my family,” he says. “It goes back generations. My father taught me. The instrument that I chose at 7 years old was the trumpet.”
When he was 17, he ventured off to learn about other musical forms — and studied classical music at a conservatory — but was soon drawn back to mariachi.
“It was great to learn classical technique,” he says. “But my heart was with mariachi.”
Coronado says — with all due respect — not all musicians can play mariachi. He says it takes a certain style, a certain sound, to play it correctly.
“You are adding your soul, your heart to it,” he says. “You just have to have it in you to play this type of music.”
And that love of mariachi is what many proponents of the genre are hoping to pass on to younger generations, whether it’s through the music being played in someone’s backyard or a major event like Fiesta del Mariachi or the Silicon Valley Mariachi Festival.
“I’m trying to promote mariachi to the youth and hopefully change the life of one kid,” Rodriguez says. “If I change the life of just one kid, I’ve done my job.”