July 9-11, 1999

8th Annual International Mariachi Festival & Conference 

To order tickets call 1-800-MHC-VIVA

(1-800-642-8482 in California)

or contact us

Mariachi and Folklórico Workshops

During three days of workshops, July 9-11, adults and children perfect their skills as musicians and dancers. Past Conference instructors have included members of Mariachi Cobre, the official mariachi at EPCOT Center in Orlando, Florida.

Music instruction focuses on techniques of violin, vihuela, guitarrón, trumpet, and guitar. Folklórico dance workshops are taught by Maestro José Tena and cover rhythms and styles from many regions of Mexico. The workshops culminate in a grand performance on-stage as part of the Mariachi Concerts.

Each year, the San José International Mariachi Festival Concerts feature an international line-up of mariachi groups, singers, and special guests. Past performers have included singer Nydia Rojas; trumpet virtuoso Miguel Martínez, Mariachi Sol de México de José Hernández; the all-female Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles; and Junko Seki, Japan's only female mariachi singer.

There's nothing like a mariachi band to make the spirit sing, and the Mariachi Mass on Sunday morning is a memorable not-to-be missed event. The San José Civic Auditorium is bedecked with paper roses for the occasion, and thousands of faithful participants watch as a costumed procession in colorful garb opens the ceremonies. A highlight is a mariachi chorus and a re-enactment of the encounter between the Indian Juan Diego and the Virgin of Guadalupe. After the mass, the mariachi leads a procession to Guadalupe River Park, three blocks away, site of the Mariachi Festival.

The first known reference to mariachi is in a letter written by a priest, Cosme Santa Anna, in 1852. Mariachi as we know it, however, evolved as a rural folk music in the states of Jalisco, Nayarit, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, Michoacán, and Colima.

The original mariachis were traveling instrumental quartets of two violins, harp, and guitar or vihuela and guitarrón. The bands were hired to play at weddings and fiestas, but the music was regarded as a quaint, country style, dismissed by wealthy city folk as a peasant's pastime.

Around the turn of the 20th century, politicians began hiring mariachi bands to attract locals to their speeches, and the music gained in popularity. After the Revolution of 1910, mariachis became a symbol of national pride.