Mariachi Fans Gather for 1st Festival

The cheerful strains of violins and trumpets, guitars and guitarrones filled the courtyard of a San Fernando church, where hundreds of mariachi music fans gathered Saturday for the San Fernando Valley’s first annual mariachi festival.

By 3 p.m., a crowd of nearly 500 had assembled and guests were still streaming in for performances by several groups, ranging from the “Sol de Mexico” ensemble--renowned in mariachi circles--to the youth orchestra of Santa Rosa de Lima Catholic Church, where the event was held.

The fund-raiser for the church--$5 adult admission charge--was also a family affair for a San Fernando mariachi clan.

Violinist Martha Gonzalez, 18, performed in the Santa Rosa church band along with her twin brothers, Miguel and Juan Gonzalez, 17, both trumpet players. The group that followed theirs to the stage, “Fiesta Mexicana,” featured their father, Francisco Gonzalez, on violin and lead vocals.

The Gonzalez children said they enjoy all kinds of music, but have a special feeling for mariachi tunes. “I love the music. I grew up with it,” Miguel Gonzalez said.

“It’s part of our culture,” Martha Gonzalez said.

The elder Gonzalez, a gardening contractor by day and professional mariachi by night, said he hopes one day to form a group with eight of his children who play music.

Like the other groups, Gonzalez’s ensemble performed without pay to raise funds for expansion of the church. “We like the people . . . in the church. We like to help,” he said.

A traditional form of popular Mexican music, mariachi is thought to have taken its name from mariage , the French word for marriage. The employment of Mexican musicians at weddings during France’s 19th-Century occupation of Mexico may explain the term.

Locally, the music may be one ethnic tradition that is gaining, not losing, strength. As a mariachi band from San Fernando Junior High School prepared to take the stage, Ernie Escalante, 62, noted that there was no such group when he was a student there.

In those days, according to Escalante, mariachi music was harder to find. “Now we have it all over,” he said. “It’s beautiful music--my No. 1 music.”