A Look at the History of Women in Mariachi Music

Laura Sobrino has performed mariachi music professionally for over 30 years. Her Web sites, which are all linked to www.mariachipublishing.com, include general mariachi education information and links, mariachi music transcription sales, and information about the history of women in mariachi music. Currently, Laura teaches mariachi music ensemble at the University of California at Riverside and Rio Hondo College in California and is the musical director for Mariachi Mujer 2000.

Parts of this article were originally published online at www.mariachipublishing.com. Used with permission.

In December 1997, Leonor Xóchitl Pérez invited me to lunch to discuss my participation on a panel for a paper she was presenting at UCLA on women in mariachi music. I had not seen her since 1978 when I first arrived in Los Angeles to perform as a mariachi. During that lunch, we discovered we had something in common—an interest in documenting the history of women in mariachi music. We agreed to work together as the perfect team; she was a scholar with experience in mariachi performance, and I was a pioneer mariachi with a B.A. in ethnomusicology, specializing in Mexican folk music traditions.

We began this project in January 1998, and it’s a work in progress. We questioned whether we could find documentation to support historical claims. We sent out e-mails to all of our academic and musician contacts around the world and crossed our fingers. Two of our most trusted contacts, Jonathan Clark from San Jose, California, and Antonio Covarrubias from Mexico City, Mexico, helped us secure some rare photos of female mariachi musicians and all-female mariachi groups from both Mexico and the United States. Their materials provided a foundation for the documentation we needed. Many other friends, including Rebecca Gonzales, Gilbert Martínez, and Ray and Maribel Medina, also provided us with photos. As we collected the data and established timelines, we were amazed that the data was taking us as far back as the early 1950s.

Mariachi Los Abajeños (c. 1972), featuring Rebecca Gonzalez.

Discovering Four Generations of Female Mariachis

The question is always asked: “When did women become a part of this all-male musical tradition?” While it seems that all-female mariachis are a symbol of the 1990s and the 2000s, women have been a part of mariachi performance for over fifty years! The participation of female musicians in this long-standing male-dominated genre could now be considered a tradition shared by the female mariachis in Mexico and the U.S. spanning at least four generations. Noted Mexico City historian Jesús Jáuregui (Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia), is currently working on a revised edition of his book, El Mariachi: Símbolo Musical de México. He secured a rare photograph of what he identifies as the first female mariachi musician in Mexico. According to Jáuregui, the “violinera” photograph may date the participation of mexicanas in mariachi music to the late 1800s (personal interview, Mexico City, August 2007).

We hope that our documentation will bring to light the importance and participation of women in mariachi music over many years and dispel some misinformation. In the mariachi world, there remain many claims to “firsts.” Since the history of women in mariachi music had never been documented, ignorance and deceptive advertising were the norm. In Guadalajara, yellow pages contain ads in which groups call themselves “the first all-female mariachi in the world.” In the United States, it’s common to hear announcers introduce all-female mariachi groups as “the first.” However, our work, supported by legitimate documentation, shows a tradition of all-female mariachi groups that started well before any of these claims.

The following research documents the participation of female mariachi musicians in Mexico and the United States. For the purpose of this article, a female “mariachi musician” is defined as an instrumentalist in a mariachi ensemble, with a mariachi uniform matching the rest of the musicians in the ensemble, performing on any of the following standard mariachi instruments: violin, trumpet, vihuela, guitar, guitarra de golpe, guitarrón, or Jalisco folk harp. This research is based on female musicians who have performed in both mixed-gender and all-female ensembles.

The ranchera singer tradition is an entirely different performance tradition, albeit related to the ranchera genre, which includes mariachi performance. In live performance and in the recording studio, a ranchera singer may be accompanied by a mariachi ensemble. According to this definition, a ranchera singer is not a member of the mariachi unless performing in the group with an instrument from the above list.

Ranchera singer Aida Cuevas, accompanied by all-female show mariachi, Mariachi Mujer 2000 (Fresno, 2001)

For example, Vicente Fernández, an icon of contemporary male ranchera singers, is not a mariachi musician himself. A mariachi musician may also have a solo career as a ranchera singer but would still be called a cantante ranchera during those performances.

Producer Rodri J. Rodríguez has presented the annual MARIACHI USA® Festival at the Hollywood Bowl for over 15 years. In 1991, Rodríguez presented a first-time tribute to 15 California female mariachi musicians, all individual females performing with different male groups. In 1993, she introduced a new all-female show mariachi, Las Perlitas Tapatías, from Guadalajara, Jalisco. In 1994, the Los Angeles-based all-female show mariachi, Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles (now recognized as the first all-female show mariachi in the U.S.), debuted at the MARIACHI USA® Festival to an audience of over 18,000. This trend has increased the number of individual female mariachis and all-female mariachi ensembles in the U.S. and Mexico. Since the 1990s, it is evident that more than half of the workshop participants in mariachi conferences around the U.S. are female.

The debut performance of Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles at the MARIACHI USA® Festival (1994)

I have been performing mariachi music since early 1975 when I was an undergraduate at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). To this day, I hear the comment, “It’s nice to see a girl playing mariachi! How long have you been playing?” When I arrived in Los Angeles over 25 years ago, there were a handful of women mariachis who were mostly violinists just out of college. Now, women have become respected arrangers, composers, and performers of all the traditional mariachi instruments in both the U.S. and Mexico. It is not uncommon for a young girl of eight to say to her parents, “I want to be a mariachi musician when I grow up.” In the 1970s, Rebecca Gonzales and I were the only women in the top show mariachis in Los Angeles. Today, all-female show mariachis play top billing alongside these same ensembles.

The Pioneer All-Female Groups in Mexico—1950s

Mariachi Las Coronelas (c. 1949), with Hilda López Soto shown second from the right

Hilda López Soto, August 2007

The earliest documentation of all-female mariachi groups in Mexico is Mariachi Las Coronelas, directed by Carlota Noriega. This pioneer mariachi group was active in the early 1950s in Mexico City. Former member Hilda López Soto explained that the group got its name from the song “Las Coronelas,” which was a big hit the year the group was formed.

Two more all-female groups, Mariachi Las Adelitas, directed by Adelita Chavez, and Mariachi Michoacano, emerged in Mexico City about that time. In the late 1950s, Mariachi Michoacano changed their name to Mariachi Las Estrellas de México.

Mariachi Las Adelitas (c. 1950)

Mariachi Estrellas de México, formerly Mariachi Michoacano (New York, 1958)

In August 2007, I went to Mexico City in search of some of these remaining mariachi pioneras. These women were true mariachis; most of them started playing their instruments as young children. A few had fathers who were musicians. Some began singing as they began their mariachi performance. They worked hard, traveling and performing from the U.S. to South America. Some of their tours lasted as long as three years. They both accompanied other artists and performed on their own. Most of them are still playing mariachi music, though not with each other or in all-female groups. A few continue to head out to the mariachi plaza in Mexico City to look for work each weekend. They remain passionate about mariachi performance and have never regretted the decision to devote their lives to this music tradition.

The Pioneer Female Mariachis in the U.S.—1970s

Click here to read more about pioneer mariachi women in the U.S. and how they gained acceptance and prominence in the mariachi world.

Several of these pioneer women are pictured below.

The Pioneer All-Female Mariachi Groups in the U.S.—1970s

Click here to read about dynamic all-female mariachi groups in the 1970s, including Mariachi Las Generalas and Mariachi Estrellas de Topeka. These groups tackled negative stereotypes and set the stage for an increasing number of female mariachis.

Mariachi Las Generalas (c. 1976)

Looking to the Future: The Growing Tradition of Female Mariachis

With this history of female participation in the mariachi tradition, it is no wonder that we have passed generations of tests with flying colors. Women mariachis have had to at least equal men in musical technique, performance, and physical stamina. At the same time, we had to triumph over social stereotypes. In some cases, a woman would have to be superior to a man to be considered for a mariachi ensemble to be worth the additional effort and backlash that would inevitably ensue. We have done it for the pure love of mariachi music as well as to challenge the norms.

Mariachi music has traditionally been passed on from father to son, from generation to generation (called a dinastía); today, however, we see mothers and fathers teaching their children about mariachi, passing the tradition from father to daughter and even mother to daughter. California pioneer Bárbara Pérez Díaz is a perfect example, continuing her dinastía through her children. Her daughter Carla, a violinist, and her son Juan, a trumpet player, both perform with their dad’s group, Mariachi Azteca in San Jose. Carla also performs with an all-female show mariachi, Mariachi Mujer 2000.

Bárbara Pérez-Díaz and her family

Fifty years ago, a mariachi family dinastía ended if the new generation produced no male heirs. Now, it is socially acceptable for a male mariachi, even in Mexico, to have his daughters continue their family’s legacy.

What will the new millennium mean to the female tradition in mariachi music? Future women mariachis need to recognize the need for technical training on their instruments as well as the establishment of a strong repertoire to become the best professionals they can be. With the history of women in mariachi tradition well rooted in Mexico, the United States, and around the world, I am confident that our compañero musicians, the mariachi aficionados, and the public alike will respect us and enjoy the endless talent and unique perspective that we have to offer.

The Gonzalez family from the San Fernando Valley. Five daughters performed with the father’s group (July 1995)

Author’s Note: A new Web site is being organized where female mariachi musicians as well as all-female mariachi groups will be able to register themselves. Please go to www.mujeresenelmariachi.com to register your group. The site is currently under construction, but will be available soon as a database of female mariachis.

Contact the author if you are interested in hosting a panel with the pioneer mariachi women from Mexico. They are currently available to deliver a historical and musical presentation at colleges, high schools, and mariachi conferences.