Mariachi is an ensemble of musicians that typically play ranchera, the regional Mexican music dating back to at least the 18th century, evolving over time in the countryside of various regions of western Mexico. The usual mariachi group today consists of as many as eight violins, two trumpets and at least one guitar, including a high-pitched vihuela and an acoustic bass guitar called a guitarrón, and all players taking turns singing lead and doing backup vocals.
Ranchera or canción ranchera is a genre of traditional music of Mexico. It dates to before the years of the Mexican Revolution. Rancheras today are played in the vast majority of regional Mexican music styles. Drawing on rural traditional folk music, the ranchera developed as a symbol of a new national consciousness in reaction to the aristocratic tastes of the period.
Boyle Heights, historically known as Paredón Blanco, is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, located east of the Los Angeles River. It is one of the city's most notable and historic Chicano/Mexican-American communities and is known as a bastion of Chicano culture, hosting cultural landmarks like Mariachi Plaza and events like the annual Día de los Muertos celebrations.
Alejandro Fernández Abarca is a Mexican singer. Born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, he is the son of the Mexican singer Vicente Fernández. Nicknamed as "El Potrillo" by the media and his fans, he has sold over 20 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling Latin music artists. He originally specialized in traditional, earthy forms of Mexican folk, such as mariachi and charro, until he successfully branched out into pop music. Over the course of his career, he has been awarded two Latin Grammy Awards and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
María Guadalupe Araujo Yong, better known as Ana Gabriel, is a Mexican singer and songwriter. During her long career, she has performed different genres of music and has received several accolades. As a result, she has been called La Diva de América and La Luna de América.
María de Luz Flores Aceves, known by her stage name Lucha Reyes, was a Mexican singer and actress. Born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, she was popular in the 1930s and 1940s and was called the "Queen of Ranchera".
The Eastside is an urban region in Los Angeles County, California. It includes the Los Angeles City neighborhoods east of the Los Angeles River—that is, Boyle Heights, El Sereno, and Lincoln Heights—as well as unincorporated East Los Angeles.
Vicente Fernández Gómez was a Mexican ranchera singer, actor and film producer. Nicknamed "Chente", "El Charro de Huentitán", "El Ídolo de México", and "El Rey de la Música Ranchera", Fernández started his career as a busker, and went on to become a cultural icon, having recorded more than 100 albums and contributing to more than 30 films. His repertoire consisted of rancheras and other Mexican classics such as waltzes.
Regional Mexican music refers collectively to the regional subgenres and styles of the country music of Mexico and the Southwestern United States. Each subgenre is representative of a certain region and its popularity varies by region. Subgenres include banda, country en español, Duranguense, grupero, mariachi, New Mexico music, Norteño, Tejano, and Tierra Caliente. It is among the most popular radio formats targeting Mexican Americans in the United States.
Nydia Rojas is an American singer who performs in a wide range of musical styles such as jazz, soul, and R&B, but makes a particular specialty of Mexican folk music.
Plaza Garibaldi is located in monumental downtown, Mexico City, on Eje Central between historic Calle República de Honduras and Calle República de Peru, a few blocks north of the Palacio de Bellas Artes. The original name of this plaza was Plaza Santa Cecilia, but in 1920, at the conclusion of the Mexican Revolution, it was renamed in honor of Lt. Col. Peppino Garibaldi, who joined with the Maderistas in the attack on Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, during the Revolution. The Garibaldi Metro station is named after this plaza.
Me Estoy Enamorando is the sixth studio album by Mexican singer Alejandro Fernández. It was released by Sony Music Mexico on 23 September 1997. It marks a musical style change where Fernández performs pop ballads and boleros as opposed to ranchera music. His decision to record a pop album transpired after having aspirations to expand his audience. Fernández asked Emilio Estefan to produce his next project after listening to Mi Tierra (1993) by his wife Gloria Estefan. Recording took place at Estefan's Crescent Moon Studios in Miami, Florida. Estefan's partner Kike Santander co-produced the recording along with Estefan and composed most of the album's tracks. The musical style consists of pop-boleros with ranchera influences while the lyrics reflect the theme of love. Four singles were released from the album: "Si Tú Supieras", "En El Jardín", "No Sé Olvidar", and "Yo Nací Para Amarte". Each of them reached number one on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart in the United States. A tour to promote the album was launched in the US and Latin America.
1st Street is an east–west thoroughfare in Los Angeles, East Los Angeles, and Monterey Park, California. It serves as a postal divider between north and south and is one of a few streets to run across the Los Angeles River. Though it serves as a major road east of downtown Los Angeles, it is a mostly residential street to the west.
Mariachi Plaza station is an underground light rail station on the E Line of the Los Angeles Metro Rail system. It is located under 1st Street at the intersection of Boyle Avenue, with the main exit located at Mariachi Plaza, after which the station is named. The plaza is the historic gateway to the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. This station opened in 2009 as part of the Gold Line Eastside Extension and was one of two underground stations on the Eastside Extension.
"Guadalajara" is a well-known mariachi song written and composed by Pepe Guízar in 1937. Guízar wrote the song in honor of his hometown, the city of the same name and state capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco.
The historic 1889 Boyle Hotel is across the street from the Mariachi Plaza at the corner of Boyle Avenue, First Street and Pleasant Avenue in the East Los Angeles community of Boyle Heights. The building was formerly a hotel and commercial shops line the first floor of this Queen Anne Style building. In 2007 the building was declared a Los Angeles Cultural Monument.
Rafael Cardenas is a Mexican-American photographer based in East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights.
This article includes an overview of the major events and trends in Latin music in the 1970s, namely in Ibero-America. This includes recordings, festivals, award ceremonies, births and deaths of Latin music artists, and the rise and fall of various subgenres in Latin music from 1970 to 1979.
Felipe Valdés Leal was a Mexican composer, lyricist, and artistic director. Valdés Leal grew up enjoying ranchera music and in 1923, he relocated to Los Angeles, California to pursue a career in music. He worked at a record store, where he would engage in humming, subsequently transcribing lyrical content to accompany them. His first successful compositions were the whimsical track "Échale un Quinto al Piano" and "Lucio Vázquez", a recording that garnered particular acclaim among the Latino community. By 1925, Valdés Leal became the artistic director at Brunswick Records, a pivotal role he played in catapulting the careers of Javier Solís, Irma Serrano, Los Panchos, and Los Alegres de Terán. In 1947, he became the artistic director for CBS Records.
