Mariachi Real De San Diego – Mariachi Classics (Mardi Gras Records, 2009)
Last March I taught a Latin music appreciation class in Bellingham, Washington. The months prior when I was researching traditional Mexican and Cuban music, I uncovered a lot of gems, but mainly from Vera Cruz. The closest I came to Mariachi music was by watching a video presentation of Linda Ronstadt’s tribute to her father’s Mexican music heritage. And I perused a couple of Arc Music recording from my collection.
I’m also surrounded by Mexican-American culture where I reside. A day doesn’t go by when I don’t hear a ranchera or a Tex-Mex song surfacing from a passing car. But even with this culture surrounding me, I have yet to see a mariachi band perform in this area. Maybe the rain keeps them away.
However, mariachi bands show up in all types of venues in the American Southwest and southern California, and are especially interesting to hear if you’re looking for things to do in San Diego. Musicians that have kept the tradition alive perform in bars, street corners, private homes and restaurants. The musicians often describe themselves as “jukeboxes” as is the case with Mariachi Real De San Diego, because these musicians possess a repertoire of 100s of songs. And the musicians have a song for any occasion from a birthday to a wedding celebration and other rites of passage. They also know how to tug at the heartstrings with a bit of nostalgia.
In the band’s press release, musicians from Mariachi Real De San Diego cite, “…I don’t care how poor people might be. They will always have mariachis at birthday and wedding parties, and even at funerals…We’ll play in church, do a Mariachi Mass, play at the gravesite, the songs the person used to like. ..We’re celebrating life.”
“Mariachi Classics—All the Mariachi Songs of Old Mexico” features 16 tracks, of songs I have never heard, but according to the musicians, find their roots in the old world. Beautiful ballads mix with some rousing celebratory songs. And the songs are performed on the traditional Mexican lute, vihuela, guitarron (a bass acoustic guitar), violins, horns, and of course, tenor vocals.
While I prefer my 2 Arc Music recordings with classic songs familiar to me, I am certain that hardcore mariachi fans will be quite pleased with this disc. And I am thankful that these musicians are keeping revolutionary songs alive and kicking in the 21st Century.
I dedicate this review to my Grandmother Celina Balquin who recently passed away at the age of 107. She was quite fond of Mariachi music and was gifted with a mariachi band on her 100th birthday in El Paso, Texas. Both my Grandfather and Grandmother Balquin were musicians.
Author: Patricia Herlevi
