Last fall, Mariachi Plata de WNMU had an opportunity to travel to Jalisco to be featured at De Tecalitlán Los Sones, the world’s most prestigious festival of mariachi.
The group attended the festival by invitation of its organizers. “They heard of us through the mariachi that we work with from Guadalajara, Mariachi Estrella de Mexico,” said Director of Mariachi Plata de WNMU Bryant Chaffino. For the past two years, WNMU has partnered with Estrella de Mexico for El Son de la Gila, the annual mariachi conference held on campus in June.
The festival is eleven days long, according to Chaffino, and each day several mariachi groups perform on a stage in the town square. All of the other performers were professional mariachis; Mariachi Plata de WNMU was the only university group to perform at the prestigious festival.
The setting of the festival was itself inspiring, said Chaffino. While Tecalitlán is a small town in terms of population, it has had an outsized influence on the development of mariachi as an art form. “That is where Silvestre Vargas is from, and he is one of the founding fathers of mariachi,” Chaffino explained. “It is home to Mariachi Vargas, the best mariachi in the world.”
“We got to rehearse in the Silvestre Vargas Museum,” said Chaffino. “You dream of going to Tecalitlán as a mariachi over here. You dream of seeing the museum. So to be in the space, to rehearse there … I had a hard time talking because I was so emotional.”
Chaffino said that the student mariachis were also moved to be in Tecalitlán and felt a lot of pressure to perform well on the festival stage. “The audience was not just the people of Tecatitlán,” he said. “There were mariachi maestros and maestras watching.”
Being surrounded by so many talented musicians was itself an exciting part of the experience. “We are able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with these living legends,” explained Chaffino.
Mariachi Plata de WNMU performed for two hours, and the group was exceptionally well received. “The crowd votes on the festival favorite,” said Chaffino, “and we won.”
Chaffino emphasized that it was a tremendous honor just to be invited to the festival, but to be named festival favorite was an outstanding accomplishment. “In my 20+ years in mariachi, this is one of the highest accolades I have received in my life. These students have just been given the golden egg right at the beginning of their careers.”
One of the student mariachis, Laisha Vargas Garcia, said that the experience in Tecalitlán made her feel that her choice to study mariachi was validated. “I was here [in Parotti Hall] when the director of Mariachi Estrella de Mexico told us that we were going to Tecalitlán,” she said, “and instantly I had tears in my eyes. I have been doing mariachi since high school, and I never thought that it would bring me this far.”
“Being in the birthplace of mariachi—that was a whole different pressure in itself,” she explained. “And then being with all these professionals and listening to them and learning—it was amazing. I felt very validated. Some people say mariachi is just a hobby, but who else’s hobby takes them on international trips?”
Chaffino noted that at the festival, Mariachi Plata de WNMU was proud to share how United States mariachis are continuing and evolving the traditions of Mexican musical heritage. “We did not just represent mariachi; we represented university-level mariachi education,” he said. “We were true cultural ambassadors at the festival.”