Bringing a motley assembly of traditional mariachi youth ensembles to the headquarters of Jalisco’s Secretary of Culture (Edificio Arroniz) was the inaugural event of a festival brought into existence, seemingly, in order to draw a line in the sand between traditional mariachi and the “modern” version, which came into being in the 1930s.
The Encuentro Nacional de Mariachi Tradicional, which ends with a concert at Teatro Degollado Sunday, August 20 has a fierce and articulate advocate in its director, Ignacio Bonilla. He took repeated pains to distance traditional mariachi and his festival from the one which will follow on its heels, the Encuetro Internacional del Mariachi y la Charreria.
“These two genres are completely different,” said Bonilla, visibly animated by the interviewer’s question of whether or not he views the two festivals as distinct. “They’re both designated as part of Mexico’s intangible cultural patrimony, but they’re different. The [International Mariachi Festival] is a commercial event, supported by the Chamber of Commerce. It’s the mariachi everyone knows, with the traje de charro, the trumpets and familiar repertoire.
“Traditional mariachi, on the other hand, is an exemplar of the variety one finds in Mexican music. It offers different styles, different instruments and repertoires”
The mariachi novice may most readily distinguish traditional mariachi from its glitzier progeny by two things: the use, in the latter, of brass instruments and the snug-fitting charro suit of black, white and red (with other colors occasionally thrown in) which serves as a visual shorthand for Mexican culture the world over.
Monday’s event at Edificio Arroniz served two purposes. The first was to exhibit instruments associated with traditional mariachi – mainly stringed – which were set on white pedestals against all four walls of a long room just off the courtyard. The second was to warm up the young musicians for the festival’s first concert, the Gala de Mariachis Niños at Teatro Degollado later that evening. The groups – 11 youth ensembles from various municipalities of Guadalajara and five from Mexico City, Aguascalientes, Nayarit and Colima – formed a large circle and took turns strumming, plucking, singing and stomping out their prepared selections. It was a stately, entirely acoustic version of a battle-of-the-bands – a rehearsal, in fact, for the competition forming the meat of the imminent performance at Guadalajara’s crown jewel musical hall.
Going onto to win the “Premio Alas y Raices” (Wings and Roots Award) that night would be Mariachi Tradicional La Estancia, from Colima.
Bonilla, in his 60s and clad in black pants, a blue dress shirt and white blazer, presided over the event at the Secretary of Culture with a cool aplomb. “The charro and his traditional traje have come to represent to the world the Mexican man: macho, with a pistol, drinking tequila, singing a song to a bad woman,” he observed ruefully.
If you’re interested in deciding for yourself which type of mariachi best suits your taste, there’s still a weekend’s worth of events remaining on the Traditional Festival’s docket(see sc.jalisco.gob.mx). And Thursday, August 24, the International Mariachi Festival kicks off for 11 days of brass-powered musical mayhem.