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MEXICAN MARIACHI

Nick Spitzer

Nick Spitzer is a folklorist widely known for his work on Creole cultures and cultural policy and as a public radio broadcaster. Artistic director and host of the "Folk Masters" concert series from 1990 to 1997 at Carnegie Hall and Wolf Trap, he also served as senior folklife specialist for the Smithsonian Institution and as the first Louisiana State Folklorist. In addition, Spitzer hosts American Routes, the nationally broadcast weekly public radio music series. He is professor of cultural conservation and urban studies at the University of New Orleans. The following essay originally appeared in the program guide for the Folk Masters 1994 concert series, held March 11-April 16 at the Barns of Wolf Trap in Vienna, Virginia.

Mariachi, perhaps above all else, is evocative of Mexico. The bravura vocals, intense trumpets, dynamic rhythms, and intricate arrangements create a veritable wall of sound and color that is unlike anything else. The music emerged through the meeting of stringed instruments brought to Mexico from Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with the musical genres and styles of indigenous and mestizo Mexico. Through the creativity of farmers, ranchers, and jornaleros (day laborers) of the western Mexican states of Jalisco, Colima, Michoacán, Nayarit, and Sinaloa, both the instruments and music evolved, approaching their current forms from the nineteenth century onward. The origin of the term "mariachi" is unclear, but it was probably in use by at least 1830.

The earliest ensembles consisted primarily of violins and the diatonic harp, which provided rhythmic and harmonic support. The small, guitar-like quinta or guitarra de golpe helped to articulate the rhythm. Eventually the vihuela, similar but with a rounded back, came to replace the flat-backed instrument. The guitarrón, a large, guitar-like instrument also with a rounded back, today provides rhythmic support, a strong bass line, and great harmonic versatility. During the 1930s mariachis began to add trumpets (initially a pair of trumpets), reportedly to strengthen their radio presence, though it certainly would have increased their volume at live gatherings as well.

The mariachi repertoire includes the traditional son, a dance piece that varies in style from region to region within Mexico; the urban cancion ranchera, which became popular during the 1930s, sung to romanticize rural life; as well as contemporary Latin pop tunes.

Natividad "Nati" Cano was born in 1933 into a family of jornaleros in the village of Ahuisculco, near the city of Guadalajara, in the state of Jalisco—an area renowned for its mariachi musicians. Both his grandfather and his father were musicians. Cano's father began to teach him to play the vihuela when he was six years old; two years later he began to study the violin at the Academia de Music in Guadalajara. During this time he toured Mexico with a chamber orchestra, learning as he went about the genres of different regions, each of which reflected the inhabitants' particular adaptations of Spanish and indigenous instruments and styles.

Though his teacher wanted him to continue at the academy, Cano left after six years of study to play in the cantinas and cafes of Guadalajara with his father. He later recalled, "I started too late to be a prodigy—I looked to the reality, the ambiente of the mariachis…. Because we were all jornaleros, music was a necessity. It was a means to gain more money than simply working the soil."

During the 1950s Nati performed with the Mariachi Chapala in Mexicali, becoming their arranger and a major force behind their expanding repertoire. In 1961 he joined the Mariachi Aguila, the house mariachi at the Million Dollar Theater, an important stop on the Mexican professional music circuit. Cano soon became the musical director and renamed the group Los Camperos.

In 1967 Nati and other members of the mariachi settled in Los Angeles and opened La Fonda restaurant, where they still perform five nights a week. La Fonda has become an important center of Mexican culture in Los Angeles, and Nati Cano has become a major figure in the Mexican community, using his knowledge, his talent, and his influence to educate, enlighten, and enrich those inside and outside the community. In recognition of his contributions, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded Nati Cano a National Heritage Fellowship in 1991. He was also featured in the PBS broadcast "Songs of Six Families" on Great Performances.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

RECORDINGS

Canciones de siempre. 1992. Linda Ronstadt and Mariachi Los Camperos Nati Cano. Polygram Latino.

Siguiendo hacia el infinitivo. 1994. Edwin Colón Zayas. EC-002-CD.

El cuatro … más allá de lo imaginable. 199?. Edwin Colón Zayas. Disco Hit DHCD-8033.