Page 84 - ION Indie Magazine JulyAugust 2018 Issue

Folklore has it that mariachi music originated in the Mexican state of Jalisco in the town of Cocula in the 19th
century, with the first example cited in print dating from 1880. By the end of the nineteenth century, the
vihuela, two violins, and the guitarrón which had replaced the harp, were the instruments of the mariachi(s).
Musicologists and folklorists have argued for years over the origin of mariachi. Standard Spanish dictionaries
and encyclopedias name the French word “marriage” (meaning wedding or marriage) as a possible origin
and date it back to the 1860s, when Maximillian of Habsburg was Emperor of Mexico. This theory was
probably first put forward by Alfonso Reyes. Another probable theory of the origin of the word mariachi is
that it originated in the language of the Cora, an indigenous people of Nayarit (not Jalisco, where the band
originated). It may refer to the wood used to make the instruments…and that’s a whole different story.

Tonight was not only a special one which observed Mexican Mother’s Day (Dia De Las Madres), but also,
Mariachi Aztlán De Pueblo was celebrating their 25th anniversary as Tucson’s most popular youth mariachi
groups in Arizona since being establish in 1992. They performed to a packed auditorium. Dressed in their
elaborate Traje de Charro outfits, the group, made up of the best of the best Mariachi musicians of Southern
Arizona, boasts a repertoire of traditional mariachi music.