Music - Sylvia Mendoza

FEBRUARY 24, 2014
www.HispanicOutlook.com
TOP 25 Institutions for Latinas
VOLUME 24 • NUMBER 10
Equity for Women in Academia
Women in
Mariachi
Music:
An
Untamed
Spirit
WOMEN/PROFILES
Dr.
by Sylvia Mendoza
Leonor Xochitl Pérez walked
across the outdoor stage at the
Women’s Museum of California
in San Diego dressed in a black mariachi
charro suit with intricate design, carrying
her violin. The more than 200 people in
the audience had come to hear El
Mariachi Femenil, an afternoon concert
of female mariachi bands, including
Grammy nominee, Trio Ellas.
But for Pérez, a classically trained
violinist and mariachi player, the concert was icing on the cake of her more
than 10 years of research on nearly 70
women in mariachi from the United
States, Mexico and South America. Since
1999, Pérez has joined forces with mariachi trailblazer Laura Sobrino and
author Nancy Muñoz, sharing their
resources to eventually produce the
Viva el Mariachi Femenil: Mariachi
Women Pioneers 1903-2013 exhibit
that opened at the Women’s Museum, an
elaborate pictorial, audio and visual celebration of the history of women in
mariachi music.
The concert featured Rebecca
Gonzales, the first female mariachi musician in the U.S. to perform with a professional high-profile male mariachi group
and with Mariachi Los Camperos, as well
as Trio Ellas, Mariachi Las Colibri, The
Women of Mariachi de Uclatlán, and an
All-Star Female Mariachi Group composed of women who have influenced
mariachi music.
It was the highlight of Pérez’s lifelong
love with mariachi music. “I’ve come full
circle,” said Pérez, who is also the
Artistic Projects Manager for the San
Diego Symphony. “I’ve traveled the world,
earned degrees – even from Harvard –
but my heart brings me back to this.”
“This” is her love, respect, passion,
and awe of mariachi music and more
specifically, women musicians in this
male-dominated musical genre. “We’re
taking the machismo out of mariachi.”
A Kickstarter online campaign brought
in foundation money, while support and
structure came from the Women’s
Museum. Articles, recorded interviews,
artifacts, mariachi uniforms and vintage
photographs filled the museum.
The exhibit was a personal milestone
as well as a professional one. Mariachi
music was the connection to Pérez’s
Dr. Leonor X. Pérez, researcher, creator of the Viva El Mariachi Femenil! exhibit that debuted at the
Women's History Museum in San Diego. Pérez has performed with mariachi bands since her teen years.
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Dr. Leonor X. Pérez (left), Dr. Lauryn Salazar (UCLA Ethnomusicology PhD '11) (center),
and UCLA Ethnomusicology PhD candidate Jessie Vallejo (right, with violin) pose together in the ¡Viva
El Mariachi Femenil!
roots. It offered an opportunity to further her education. It gave her an
inkling of the power a female mariachi
musician has to upend stereotypes.
“Women benefit when they play mariachi music, certainly,” says Pérez. “They
escape from traditional gender roles,
gain power and acquire a voice. There’s
a lot of freedom of expression and selfidentity when you can throw a grito and
let loose that inner power. When I sang,
people listened.”
The Roots to Self-Identity Began
with Mariachi Music
Although her parents were born in
Fresno, Calif., they were sent to Mexico
for repatriation, which affected Pérez’s
self-identity. “Culturally, we were
Mejicanos. Technically we were not
immigrants but we lived an immigrant
life as farmworkers.”
Her parents were untrained musicians, even though her dad played piano
and guitar by ear. Growing up in East
Los Angeles, Pérez and her sisters all
played and/or sang with their
Pentecostal church, a world away from
anything as secular and “worldly” as
mariachi. “It was certainly not music a
girl played, especially because it was
played in bars and where women
shouldn’t be,” she said.
Even so, her rebellious nature kicked
in and she began playing at age 9.
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Through an unlikely series of events,
mentors and bucking of tradition, she
took flight. In seventh grade, she joined
her first mixed-gender mariachi band.
Her mentor, Jesús Sánchez, known as
Don Chuy, took her under his wing.
Pérez performed for 11 years before
taking a 10-year hiatus. Through a feminist theoretical framework, she started
her search for identity. “The theme that
cuts across all generations is that
women have felt constrained in their
daily lives, as far as expectations of who
they should be,” she says.
Her essay, “Transgressing the Taboo:
A Chicana's Voice in the Mariachi
World,” was published in the 2002 book
Chicana Traditions: Continuity and
Change by Norma Cantú. She noted: “I
realized that as a Chicana, mariachi, and
emerging scholar, I am armed with
additional tools with which to transgress
this taboo and carve out a space for
myself and other women like me in the
mariachi world.”
The power was traditionally held by
male musicians. Even the charro suit
reflected machismo in the color, the fit
of the bolero jacket, and the botonadura, the silver buttons that line the outer
side of the pants. The black and silver
was traditionally worn by wealthy
Mexican ranchers and denoted power
and ethnic pride.
Still, playing gave Pérez direction. “I
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needed to find my voice.”
Pérez’s “Mariachi Myth” shows how
the media focuses on male high-profile
mariachi groups and promotes the idea
that there are only a handful of women
mariachi groups. Many women have
played only in school-based or semiprofessional groups, even though hundreds of women of all ages, from all
places and of all ethnicities have helped
keep the musical tradition alive.
This participation shows the transformative power of mariachi. “Women can
express themselves. It allows them to be
more assertive and independent in their
everyday lives,” said Pérez. Being in a
mariachi band transformed her life and
her self-confidence. “I was very aware of
my academic failings in junior high and
high school and never thought I could
pursue higher education.” Her option
was to become a mariachi, which led
her to other avenues of learning. As it
became engrained in her heart, her
mind opened to higher education.
The Long Way Around
Pérez did not take the traditional educational route. Mariachi music opened
doors for her in other ways. She learned
from the media arts education program,
where she wrote articles for the youth
newspaper, La Paloma. Eventually she
applied for and earned an internship she
heard about through Plaza de la Raza to
work as a student reporter for the
Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Foundation
in Washington, D.C.
Don Chuy put her in touch with Dan
Sheehy, the director of the only mariachi
group in D.C. Mariachi de las Americas
became her home, her inspiration and
her financial savior. She played professionally with the group long after her
internship ended. They played the White
House inaugural ball in 1981 and many
government agency events. “Remember
Mrs. Reagan with the signature red
dress?” asks Pérez. “I was there.”
When she returned to California, she
knew she needed a formal education to
progress. In eight years she earned her
BA in psychology from UCLA, a master’s
in human development and psychology
research from Harvard and a PhD in
education from UCLA. She ended up
working in a variety of positions at UCLA,
East Los Angeles College and Harvard
Medical School – as the program manager for the Center of Excellence in
Minority Health. It seemed, however, that
the more she delved into academia, the
less she played.
“It was horrible to be an outsider in
a world you were so much a part of,”
she said.
While at UCLA, she was walking past the
music department and heard the familiar
strains of mariachi music – and realized
how much she had missed it. Don Chuy
had started/directed university-based
groups, including UCLAtlan, from UCLA’s
Institute of Ethnomusicology in 1961,
Pérez says. The graduate and PhD students
studying ethnomusicology brought their
passion to life through playing.
Pérez played again and continued her
research. Once she started working with
the symphony, it allowed her to explore
different ethnicities and develop music.
“Funny how it all seems related now,”
she says. “There are definite cognitive
and social psychology positive effects
between music and people’s lives.” She
wondered how to use the experience to
contribute to society.
woman and a trumpet player who did it
professionally, and did it well. She was
also a teacher of the music to other
young women,” she said.
Las Rancheritas was made up of four
girls who performed in Vietnam in
1967-1968. There was a social, political, and historical backing of their
adventures in a piece called “Love, War
and Mariachi.” “Elvira” was the musical
director of the group and wrote the
music – and she was only 16. Watching
Legacies
When she had her daughter at the age
of 39, it was important that Pérez share
her love of cultural engagement, freedom of expression, and the passion for
roots and music that runs deep, across
generations, she says.
Her daughter played the violin in Los
Angeles and while living at Harvard with
Pérez, tried her hand in African drumming. “Now she tells me she wants to try
the guitarrón.”
Impact of Women in Mariachi
Women in mariachi have definitely
added a positive contribution to society,
offering healing, identity, and expresMariachi Las Adelitas. 1950s, Mexico City
sion, says Pérez. “The music just moves
us emotionally. It incorporates so many
styles like polkas and boleros that are Dizzy Gillespie, she was seduced musiShe hopes the legacy lives on beyond
relatable, but it’s a fusion with national cally, says Pérez. “Her highlight should her own family. Pérez currently is writing
ethnic identity.”
have been like a prom; instead it was a book that relates with the exhibit.
There are approximately 30 active going to Vietnam. They went through Starting a woman’s mariachi group in San
women mariachi groups in the U.S., 60 Black Widow Mountain, the hottest war Diego is a possibility. “My vision is to
in Mexico and South America, but there zone in Vietnam and to vets’ hospitals.”
have mariachi girls who are 15 and
are also many women who play in mixed
On the contemporary front is Cindy younger and give them space and supgender groups.
Shea, director of Mariachi Divas, which port. It would be great to have a women’s
The earliest documentation of a was nominated for a 2013 Grammy. She world music festival from different contiwoman mariachi musician was Rosa brought in a tropical feel, ethnic identity nents that can change the world view.
Quirino, in 1903. She was 12 when she and cultural ownership to the music, This is just a slice of a bigger picture.”
was started playing violin and singing in and the group became a moneymaker.
As for Pérez, she has found her idenan otherwise all-male group in La
Sobrino, Pérez’s colleague, is also the tity – and her voice. “Mariachi music is
Escondida, Nayarit, Mexico. Between the musical director and a violinist for the a passion in my core. It has sustained
1940s and 1950s, three prominent all- Mariachi Mujer 2000, which in August me emotionally throughout my life. I
women mariachi groups rose to semi- 2008 represented the Americas at the can’t live without playing this music. My
fame in Mexico City – Adela y Su Olympic Opening Ceremonies in the untamed spirit was always in the marMariachi de Muchachas, Mariachi Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing, China. gins of this music.”
Femenil Estrellas de Mexico and Pérez also has performed with this group.
Viva el Mariachi Femenil! will open
Mariachi Las Coronelas.
Every single woman they unearthed in March at the San Gabriel Mission
Pérez was most moved by Los and celebrated inspired Pérez on a Playhouse in California, topped by
Adelitas, the first Mexican mariachi deeper level than she could ever have another female-only mariachi concert
group. “Adela was a Renaissance imagined.
performance.
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