The intermingling sounds of trumpet, violin and guitar meld perfectly together. Above this melange of melody soar the reverberations of a voice emblazoned with passion, love, pain, joy, devotion and strength all at once.
The music of a mariachi is one of the most globally recognized, multifaceted and aesthetically pleasing musical art forms today. Fans of the genre span the world, yet the mariachi has indelibly become synonymous with the sounds of Mexico, and will forever be regarded as the voice of a people.
Tonight, in honor of the centuries-old holiday Day of the Dead, one of the most prolific mariachis in the world today, Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano, will bring their skill and musical craft to Royce Hall with guest performer Eugenia León lending her immense vocal talents to their repertoire.
“Mariachi sort of became the soul of Mexico,” ethnomusicology Professor Steven Loza said. “Even though it started as a very small rural ensemble in Jalisco in west-central Mexico … it is a form that is constantly modernizing and adapting.”
The origins of the mariachi style stem roughly from the late 1800s, when a country and a people reeling from war and rebellion struggled to find their identity. From this crucible grew the fiery sounds of mariachi, and from its songs and melodies, flourished a national character.
There is no typical song topic for mariachi music. A typical repertoire can run the gamut from heartbreak to lust, hate, history, and even through to folklore, mythology, and nationalism.
“Whether you have the Day of the Dead, or DÃa de la Virgen de Guadalupe or Christmas, there are songs for everything, even for birthdays, weddings, and funerals,” said Loza.
Mariachi first reached mass international audiences in the 1930s and ’40s, thanks to the technologies of radio and film.
Natividad “Nati” Cano was born in 1933 into this world of burgeoning mariachi talent. Some 20 years later, after having studied at the Academia de Musica in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, Cano made his way northward into Los Angeles where, in 1961, he was offered the leadership of his own mariachi.
Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano was thus founded here more than forty years ago. Los Camperos, largely regarded as the best mariachi in the United States and second-best in the world behind Jalisco’s own Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan, have recorded eight albums under the direction of Cano, with the most recent earning a Grammy nomination in 2006 for Best Mexican/Mexican-American album.
Mexican songstress and guest performer Eugenia León is also a musical power in her own right. Considered one of Mexico’s greatest living singers, León has been performing since the late 1970s throughout Latin America and Europe in her trademark style of excessive showmanship and undeniable talent.
Though there is no direct correlation between mariachi music and Day of the Dead, the two come together tonight as a means of uniting tradition, spirituality, and culture.
“You’re calling for your ancestors and you’re calling for people who have passed,” said Patricia Valladolid, a third-year Chicana and Chicano studies student. “You’re telling them that you’re here and you’re celebrating with them. That’s why I think music is relevant to DÃa de los Muertos, because you are doing a spiritual type of call.”
“Standing and visiting a grave site is different from celebrating a person’s life,” Valladolid added. “That’s what DÃa de los Muertos is. You’re not celebrating that they’re dead. You’re remembering their passing and at the same time, you’re celebrating their life.”
Few sounds could be more helpful than Mariachi when it comes to celebrating life. Adabel Rosas, a fourth-year political science and international development studies student, feels that the music emphasizes the festival’s celebratory approach to death. As the brazen horns dance above affirming guitar rhythms, nothing in the musical world sounds further from fear.
“Just because it’s the Day of the Dead, people associate it with being scary,” said Rosas. “I don’t think it’s supposed to be scary at all. It’s a way to teach about death, and how death is still a part of life and not something you should fear.”
The complexities of culture, tradition, spirituality and history convene on Royce tonight, but there’s nothing to fear here. This Day of the Dead concert is all about diversity and celebrating life.
“I think mariachi represents the “˜mestizaje’ of Mexico,” said Loza. “It’s what Mexico is. It’s the mosaic of Mexico. When you listen to mariachi music, you’re listening to a synthesis of influences. It became more than just Jalisco or west-central Mexico. It became Mexico in general.”