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Jan. 15, 2021 - Epoch Times
22:10
World-Renowned Mariachi Maestro Helps Latino Students Thrive in US
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You know, it's great.
The idea is not so much for them to become these professional mariachi musicians.
It's for them to really learn to focus and work as a team.
You understand what I mean?
Yeah.
And to do better in school.
So most of the kids that do take mariachi, they end up doing better in their other classes.
That is the fascinating part, that they end up graduating from high school.
It's beautiful.
And, you know, we just teach them music.
It's about music, you know.
And the parents connect with the teachers, you know, because they're so proud to see their kids learning mariachi music.
What is the origin of mariachi music?
How deeply is mariachi music rooted in Mexican culture?
And how does mariachi music impact high school graduation rates among Latinos in the U.S.? Today we sit down with world-renowned musician, composer, and educator Jose Hernandez.
He's a fifth-generation mariachi and the founder of Sol de Mexico and Reyna de Los Angeles, the first all-female mariachi.
He's also an ambassador of mariachi music for educational school programs in 37 states across the U.S. Welcome to California Insider.
Great to be here.
Thank you.
We want to learn from you about the mariachi culture.
Can you tell us about the history?
Well, mariachi music I think is a transformation that came starting from the Spaniards when they came into Mexico during the Conquista, the Conquest, around 1525, 1535, around there.
The Spanish brought along a lot of the instruments, the violin, the harps, and they taught a lot of the indigenous people.
About these instruments.
And also about Christianity.
Many historians think that the indigenous, when they were being taught about Christianity, that they learned these instruments and they would play these instruments in the church.
And a lot of the indigenous people also, they would combine their rhythms Together with these instruments, and they think that's how mariachi comes from, right?
So the original mariachi ensemble is usually one violin, one guitar, and a harp.
It didn't even have the trumpets.
So three people.
Usually three people, yeah.
And they would do it to dance.
They would go to dance.
They would have a...
They didn't even call it mariachi during that time.
They would get like a large piece of wood and they would dance over that wood.
Now historians say that there was a tree that they would use to cut and to make that floor and the tree was called mariachi.
I see, that's how the name may have come.
Yes, that's what they say.
So my family's been playing this music since the 1800s, you know, so we're going on six or seven generations now, you know, so many, many changes have been happening, you know, through those years.
In the 1930s, because of the radio programs, the live radio programs, they added a trumpet.
One of the executives from Mexico City, from XAW, which was Emilio Escarraga, who was Televisa, right?
He's the one who asked some of the marechis to add a trumpet.
So they added one trumpet in the 30s and they started doing more recordings, you know.
And then the golden era of Mexican cinema happened in the 1940s.
So they had great artists like Jorge Negrete and Pedro Infante who became like, in the United States, like Gene Autry or Roy Rogers, right?
They were the singing cowboys.
So that's how the music became known internationally.
And the mariachi music was beginning to be heard all over the place because of the golden era of movies.
And what about the outfit?
So the outfit, where does it come from?
The outfit, the traje de charro, it comes from the charros.
The rich Spaniards, the hacendados they call them, they were the ones that used these.
The indigenous people used their white cloth, red sash, huarache, the sandals, you know, and a hat.
And when the mariachis started playing and doing certain events, they didn't have a suit to wear.
So they started wearing a mariachi version of the charro suit.
And the rich Spaniards were offended.
They go, how can these peasants use our suit?
But it just, they started using it more and more and more and it became, you know, part of our culture, you know.
The musicians wearing the traditional charro suit.
Now what I'm wearing is a charro suit, but it's modified for mariachi, right?
It's tighter here in the legs, The charro suit is a little more loose because they go on the horse, right?
So they need that space.
And mariachis, we're not getting on top of no horse, right?
But it's more of a tapered look for the mariachis.
So now, how does the mariachi culture connect to Mexico?
Oof!
The mariachi culture is a huge part of the Mexican people.
It's become a form of music that's embedded in the hearts of every Mexican.
It's, I think, the music that represents Mexico more than any other genre of music in the country.
If you think of Mexico, you're in Europe, you think of Mexico, you think mariachi.
You think tequila, you think tortillas.
So, and most of them are basically from the state of Jalisco.
But Mariachi, truly Mariachi comes from certain states like Michoacan, Jalisco, Nayarit, and parts of Guerrero.
You know, and some historians think that it comes from other parts of the country also.
But those are the main states, right?
Yeah.
Mariachi is very nationalistic.
There's a pride that you feel when you hear mariachi music.
And I tell people, mariachi is like the Mexican flag.
It doesn't matter where you're at.
If you hear a mariachi song, a Mexican song, you want to yell and you want to, Viva Mexico!
You want to sing Cielito Lindo.
You want to sing El Rey.
When you hear a mariachi play, it's like you're home.
Like your home.
And Mexican people are very, very proud of the music because the music comes from humble beginnings.
You understand what I mean?
So they embrace it.
So, for instance, my mariachi, Mariachi Sol de Mexico, or Mariachi Reina, the all-female group that I have, when we do concerts in performing arts centers or in symphony halls, All of our people, Latinos, our Mexican people, they're there.
They're always supporting us because, for them, they feel pride that a mariachi ensemble is playing where the symphony plays.
Do you understand what I mean?
Yeah.
So when we do a concert together with the symphony, like with the San Francisco Symphony, we play with them, or we play with Dudamel here with the LA Philharmonic or other orchestras.
The sense of pride.
Yeah, it's this pride that you just, when the mareche comes out, it's just, ah, everybody wants to, yeah, it's an amazing feeling, right?
You know, Jose, I lived in Mexico for a year and three months, and me encanta la cultura de Mexico.
I love the Mexican culture, man, I just, I love it.
I mean, it's more traditional, I understand, but I just love it.
And now, you are in California, and I want to know, how's the mariachi culture here?
Does it play a role in the U.S.? Well, the same mariachi musicians, I mean, we love it just the same as a mariachi in Mexico.
We respect it very much.
Actually, I think for many, many years here in the United States, in California, We would give even more importance to the way that we dress, to the details, because we're in the melting pot, right?
We have a lot of cultures, right?
So we have that pride that say, you know, I'm representing my country.
So I take even more care of what I do and what I represent, right?
So, for instance, I mean, I've been invited to do a lot of things in movies, to come out in videos, and I've turned down a lot of stuff because I don't like the way The mariachi musician and the Mexicans being portrayed.
It's not happening as much now, I don't think, but still in the 90s, it was still happening, you know, in the late 80s and 90s.
And I've turned down, I remember a video, they told me, hey, can you do, can you come out in the movie Naked Gun 2 1⁄2, right?
It was a comedy.
I go, well, what do you want me to do?
Oh, yeah, it's this part, you know, where the mariachis come out, and you have fake mustaches, and you twirl the guitar.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I'm not interested.
And then they asked us, no, but you could do a video.
You could do a video with Bon Jovi.
He's doing one of the main songs.
And you could come out on the video.
I go, well, what's the video?
Well, it's probably going to be filmed maybe in Tucson and, you know, in an old town.
And you're going to be really dusty and with mustaches.
I go, no, no.
You know...
I'm not interested in that, you know, because that's a big stereotype, you know, and I want to get away from that.
You know, the mariachi musician, like I tell a lot of people in my shows, I go, it's not that, you know, the stereotype many people want to portray, you know, the big fat Mexican with a tequila bottle and a guitar and he's sitting under a cactus, you know.
I go, that's not it.
I go, mariachi musicians nowadays, I go, we have music education.
We know how to write.
We could orchestrate for a symphony orchestra.
We know how to teach music.
I go, and we, You know, we like to expose our musicianship to the world.
And you were mentioning offline when I was talking to you that mariachi music plays a big role here in California and the U.S. Yeah, it's huge.
Through education, of course it does.
Because, I mean, I've been involved in teaching mariachi music I think since 1980.
And I was doing a night class in I think Cal Poly Pomona.
It was fun.
I mean, I was 21, 22 years old, and I enjoyed it.
I've always liked to share the music.
I think that comes from my father and my grandfather.
And how does it work?
How does it help?
Well, with mariachi music, what we do is that some music educators have come up with certain curriculums, and I've helped on some of them, and we introduce them to the school districts as an option for them to have.
You know, instead of jazz and classical music, they could also, if they have a huge Latino demographic, they could also offer mariachi.
So, Mariachi went through, it's tough times too, because the classical musicians and the jazz musicians didn't want To share musicians, right?
Oh, no, no, they have a mariachi, they don't play well.
The stereotype, right?
Oh, they play a lot of tune and just loud.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
I go, hear the good mariachis.
And then when they hear the good mariachis, then they have the respect, right?
So now you have programs like in Clark County and Las Vegas.
They have over 1,600 students in this program.
That's an in-school program.
Wow.
And these kids, you know, They graduate.
They have a higher possibility of graduating, right?
I think the graduating rate there in Clark County of young Hispanic kids, Latinos, it's over 90 percent.
Is it because of the program?
Because of the program.
We went to Nashville and we started programs, helped start some programs there.
I think two middle schools and a high school.
And their graduation rate was there like in the mid-40s of Latinos graduating from high school, right?
When the mariachi program started, I think three years or four years after that, it went up to 93%.
How did it happen?
Because the mariachi music, it's like cross-generational.
You know, the little five-year-old, six-year-old falls in love with the music and so does the grandmother loves the music also, right?
So it becomes very cool.
When they see that the program is offered in these school districts, the parents want to be a part of it because they connect with that music.
Before, no.
They wouldn't even go to fundraisers.
So they feel connected to the school.
Yeah, they feel connected to the school.
They'll do fundraisers, you know, to help their kids get the uniforms.
It's a big thing, you know.
And then as they get involved, the kids stay in school.
And now in a lot of schools, it's like you have to have a certain grade point average to join the Mariachi program.
Interesting.
It's an honor to be a mariachi, right?
So we changed the whole, you know, image of it, you know, and then, hey, you know, it's a privilege to be, to put on this suit.
You're representing the whole country here, you know?
So it's pretty neat, especially like in the state of Texas.
Texas is huge.
I mean, I think they're the state that has been more aggressive in mariachi education in the schools.
It's a huge part.
Over there they have competitions like marching band competitions.
Now they have mariachi band competitions.
And how did you guys get them into the school system?
Well, over there, I mean, it just became part of the curriculum in the schools.
I think it started...
I'm going to say maybe in the early 80s, the first school started.
I mean, I started going over there I think in the early 90s as a clinician.
And then teaching also.
After that, they started the programs in the colleges because these high school kids, where were they going to continue their mariachi practice in the college?
So now some colleges started doing that.
Now I think there's a few colleges that are giving a degree to become a mariachi music teacher.
Interesting.
And the professors, the teachers, are they Latinos?
No, you have musicians, band teachers from all walks of life.
Like I do a conference in Vegas once a year where we have at least 60 or 70 band teachers from all over the country.
So because of that, of the teachers that we teach how to teach mariachi in the schools, we give them all the materials and we teach them a little bit about the instruments.
So we've impacted I think about 37 states here in the United States that have the mariachi programs now.
Wow.
And they're coming there to learn how to teach?
To learn how to teach mariachi, because they do teach orchestra, these teachers.
But now their principal's going, hey, you know, we have a lot of Latinos now here, a lot of Mexican kids.
Can we teach mariachi?
Do you know how to teach mariachi?
I don't know.
But, you know, okay, why don't you go to the conference in Vegas?
And they start.
So they're...
I'm there, you know, and also with a great friend of mine, her name is Marsha Neal, who does a lot for music in general.
Why do you think these principals are doing that?
Because the demographics are changing a lot, you know?
And I see it, you know, so I go into the Midwest and I go to a high school and I'm doing a clinic there for these kids, you know?
So I remember I got invited, I think I was telling you the other day, to Denison, Iowa.
It was their first concert that they were going to, their first mariachi concert right in the high school.
And I go, yeah, I'll go, because I remember the two band teachers that went to Vegas to study, they actually, they jumped in together, yeah, and they got their mariachi group together, so they had already been practicing for close to a year.
So they were going to do their first concert of the year.
I think it was like 10 songs or something like that.
And we went, and I see these kids that I was going to work with during the day, and It was about a 20-piece group, and about 16 of them were white, white, blonde-haired kids.
You know, someone had freckles, blue eyes.
They didn't even speak Spanish, but they were with violins and guitars and the big bass, and there were only like three, I think there were three Latinos, three Mexicans.
And they were doing the singing.
And they were the ones doing the singing, right?
So it was...
It was really cute to see how they would stand very proud, you know, because they knew they were wearing the mariachi suit and they got to stand with pride.
And you're seeing all these young Anglo kids playing mariachi and loving our music, you know.
And how did you feel about that?
I mean, I got very emotional about it.
And it was, like I told you the other day, it was after the concert, The three Latinos came to thank me for going and working with them during the day and for working with their teachers, right?
And they were just, they were very emotional.
Their parents were there.
They were like little rock stars, right?
And they were just saying, you know, we came here and the community embraced us, you know.
We're like family.
They take us in like family.
A lot of the ranch owners, right?
They have a lot of Mexican workers, you know, that help them in the ranch and the farms.
I mean, perfect English, okay?
These Mexican kids, perfect, no accent, just perfect English.
We assimilated because, you know, we assimilate, right?
But then when the mariachi program came here, it gave us a chance to express ourselves, so they get all emotional, right?
And they're crying, and then so a lot of the Anglo kids, you know, they're friends with them, right?
So they see how emotional they get, so they support them, and they want to be part of the mariachi, and it's No, now they're all over Iowa, man.
They're all over doing gigs, making extra money so it helps them when they go into college.
It's amazing, you know.
So I see those stories all the time, you know, of how Americans in the Midwest have helped a lot of the Mexican people, you know, and how the school districts have also opened up, you know, to programs like the ones that we try to implement in these schools.
And you have seen the direct impact?
Oh, completely.
Completely.
I mean, that's why I'm so grateful, you know, for this interview, because it's important that people know about that, because there are a lot of things that go on that are very beautiful, and some people don't know about these stories.
We don't get to read it on news.
Yeah, you don't see it in a normal news story.
Once in a while, I mean, I know they've covered my foundation of what we do here in L.A. County and in Orange County, you know, where my academy and my foundation is involved in about 20 schools, and it's an after-school mariachi program for kids, and my musicians from my group, you know, a lot of them have their degrees in music, you know, music education, right?
So they're very good teachers, so now they work with the kids, you know, two or three hours a day.
You know, it's great.
The idea is not so much for them to become these professional mariachi musicians.
It's for them to really learn to focus and work as a team.
You understand what I mean?
And to do better in school.
So most of the kids that do take mariachi, they end up doing better in their other classes.
That is the fascinating part, that they end up graduating from high school.
It's beautiful.
And, you know, we just teach them music.
It's about music.
And the parents connect with the teachers, you know, because they're so proud to see their kids learning mariachi music.
And now, with the pandemic and what's going on now, there's a lot of fear and there's a lot of negativity.
And what do you think you guys play?
What role do you guys are playing in society now?
We're sort of sitting in the sidelines waiting for the schools to decide if...
Well, in L.A., I think they decided not to open the schools.
So right now, in Orange County, Santa Ana's waiting to see if we are going to do online classes with the kids.
So we're open to do...
As much as we can do to help the kids and keep them busy, because when they're not going to school, you know, there are a lot of Mexican people that, you know, they depend on mother and father working.
Yeah, yeah.
And when the kids aren't in school, it's dangerous to them because they don't want their kids sneaking out and getting involved with the wrong people.
Yeah, yeah.
So a lot of those, you know, a lot of my paisanos there, they want schools to open, you know.
They go, we need, you know, because it's a big help for them.
Yeah.
But then I understand the other side.
Hey, you know, it's...
You know, if it is dangerous for them to be there, you know, I sort of understand both sides.
Now, as musicians, what do you think you guys can do in this time that there is a pandemic?
No, all we can do is help.
Like, for us, the mariachi plazas are very important, right?
So, in L.A., there is a mariachi plaza there that...
That has been there for many, many years.
So a lot of the older mariachis, you know, they're groups for hire, right?
So they don't really pay into the system, right?
So they fall between the cracks.
So we did a video for LA County to try to bring awareness, you know, for people to maybe donate to the foundation.
There's a foundation there that's involved in helping the mariachis there, you know, helping them with food and stuff.
And I, myself, and my mariachis, we've done some fundraisers through my restaurant, through Cielito Lindo.
We've donated, you know, the 50% of food sales, you know, to help send money to Garibaldi Square, right, in Mexico City, and to San Juan de Dios in Guadalajara, you know, to help the mariachis there.
Because over there, I mean, a lot of mariachis continue working, and even the ones that are infected.
Because they don't get no help, so they need to work so they infect others.
I think about almost 30 musicians have died in Garibaldi Square of the elderly men that were pretty much compromised.
So we just try to help as much as we can and to bring awareness and to just wait to see How we could help the children that are staying home now from school.
I continue being busy doing online classes, sort of like personal classes for trumpet players.
Right now I'm doing that.
And what message do you have for those kids that want to be mariachis like yourself, grow up to be a professional mariachi?
Well, first of all, the message is to be a mariachi is not easy.
It takes discipline, right?
So if you're a good student, You know, in your history, math, science, and those other classes, you will do good with mariachi.
You know, it's something that you have to, if you're going to learn it, if you say you're going to learn violin, you've got to be very serious about the violin, or the trumpet, because it's a music that, it's not only beautiful music, but it's a music that represents a whole country, right?
So, if you're going to do it, do it, you know, 100%.
Well, thank you, Jose.
Thank you so much.
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