From the Heart : Five Generations Carry On Tradition of Mariachi

Jose Hernandez has just finished singing a set of mariachi tunes--”Guadalajara,” “Cielito Lindo” and “Volver, Volver”--standards that have served five generations of his family and fueled 150 years of applause. Offstage at his South El Monte restaurant, Hernandez breaks into an original song titled “Tierra del Mariachi” (“Land of the Mariachi”):

I represent my land.

My land from Jalisco

Where songs are born

And folk dances

Talk about our roots and traditions.

I come to sing on behalf of my land

Because my hope is to give

The world these beautiful songs . . .

How I love my mariachi.

For Jose Hernandez, the lyrics are truly from the heart. He has been performing--along with his five brothers--the music of his ancestors since he was 3. “It is up to us to keep the dynasty going,” says the 33-year-old singer, who represents the fifth generation of performers in his family.

“You have to have it in your blood. There’s really no other way to explain it.”

Somehow the family that plays together is still a family--creative differences and all.

In the mid-1800s, Jose’s great-great-great grandfather, Pedro Hernandez, played in dusty plazas in a region of western Mexico known as La Sierra del Tigre--an area that included several pueblos in the state of Jalisco and is considered by many to be the birthplace of mariachi, a musical genre dating back to the early 1800s. The family remained in Mexico for more than 100 years.

In 1960, Jose’s father, Esteban Hernandez, was looking for better musical opportunities, so he moved his wife and young family from La Sierra to the border town of Mexicali.

Several members of Esteban’s group, Mariachi Chapala--which he and his father organized in 1948--also made the move. Two years later the group, which included members of the extended family and friends, landed a contract in California.

“We got a six-month contract to play at the Granada, a small cantina on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles,” 67-year-old Esteban recalls. “To my recollection, ours was the first big organized mariachi group in Los Angeles.”

“I remember when I had to pay bars and restaurants to let us play--a quarter a song because we were in competition with juke boxes back then,” he says.

Mariachi Chapala disbanded in 1963, but family members continued to play with various groups--in the United States and in Mexico. In 1967, Jose’s oldest brother, Pedro, started the group Mariachi Los Galleros--with the six brothers and their father. The brothers stayed together for about five years and were the featured entertainment at the Santa Anita Racetrack. Pedro still directs Los Galleros, which includes his son and two daughters. Jose started his own group, Mariachi Sol de Mexico, in 1981.

“We’ve come a long way from those days,” Esteban recalls. “Now my children are playing with the Philharmonic at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.”

But Esteban seems almost nonchalant about that accomplishment--it’s only one of many for the Hernandez clan. Mariachi Chapala, he says, was one of the first groups in Los Angeles to play classical music on instruments such as the vihuela , guitarra de golpe and guitarron , guitars of various sizes and sounds made especially for mariachi music.

“We were very avant-gardish at that time,” he says.

Says Jose: “We still are.”

Jose’s group combines traditional Mexican songs with Mozart, Elvis, Sinatra, rap and any other genre that catches his ear. Its members have performed with mainstream artists Linda Ronstadt and Vikki Carr and Mexican entertainers Juan Gabriel and Vicente Fernandez. Their music was featured in the film “Old Gringo,” and this month Jose will be featured in a PBS documentary on mariachis who hang out on Boyle Street in East Los Angeles in search of work. For the past three years he has been musical director for the annual Mariachi USA Festival at the Hollywood Bowl.

But Jose’s ambitions extend beyond the occasional Hollywood Bowl or L.A. Philharmonic appearance. He and his brothers and father have a mission: to promote mariachi music, its musicians and a culture that Jose says “is full of jewels--beautiful songs written by great Mexican composers.”

This year, the family hopes to organize the Hernandez Mariachi Heritage Society, a mariachi museum and mariachi music programs at schools. Several years ago the Hernandezes started a music program at Rio Hondo College. Today, Jose and his father give lessons at the South El Monte Community Center.

And Jose has one more dream: He yearns for the day when mariachis are not regarded as “fat little Mexicans who play in dive bars.”

“We are musicians with an education. Many of us are trained and have studied music all our lives.”

Most of the Hernandez brothers are still in the family business, and the clan gathers occasionally for holidays and music festivals. Both Jose and his brother Pedro Rey opened restaurants to spotlight their groups. But they don’t always see eye to eye on musical style.

Pedro prefers to remain true to traditional Mexican mariachi tunes. Jose, on the other hand, welcomes variety.

“I like to swing with my mariachi band. We do the old songs, but we also do some pretty great songs like ‘New York, New York’ and ‘Strangers in the Night,’ which are perfect for mariachi arrangements.”

At times, Jose says, other mainstream mariachi groups are critical of his vanguard approach to a revered tradition.

“Sometimes we are criticized for singing in English or doing a mariachi rap, but I think we’re just making a cultural connection with certain audiences.”

“Mariachi has to keep evolving.” Especially if performers want to attract the next generation.

Jose says he and his brothers realize it isn’t easy to keep their children interested in the family business. Many of the younger members of the Hernandez clan prefer rap, hip-hop and techno-pop and are glued to MTV.

“It was easier to keep the tradition going in the ‘60s,” he says. “Our younger generation is influenced by other music. It is hard.”

But Jose and his brothers have some reason to hope the dynasty will continue.

Older brother Pedro Rey’s two teen-age daughters play the flute and occasionally sing with Los Galleros. Jose’s 5-year-old daughter plays the violin and recently learned how to play a mariachi song, “La Negra.” His 6-year-old son sings and dances ballet folklorico, though not just yet with his father’s group.

“My daughter is more into mariachi music than my son is. She goes to sleep with mariachi music on her CD player. If MTV comes on, she is not so much turned on by the Madonnas and the Hammers.

“I think the future depends totally on our kids, and people have a lot of Hernandezes to look forward to.”