Kids’ Mariachi Playing

For someone who has attended and reviewed the Mariachi USA Festival for several years, Enrique Lopetegui certainly shocked many, in particular me, with his review of the seventh annual festival (“Uneven Notes at Mariachi Festival,” June 24).

The so-called “out of tune torture” he referred to were notes being played by children who learned to hold an instrument just eight weeks prior, children who had recently learned of their heritage and were taking pride in this music, children who only see themselves on covers of newspapers when bus accidents occur or are covered by police yellow plastic body covers. How could he critique these children with the same ink with which he critiques professionals? Slam me for poor direction or poor production shortcomings, or condemn those groups that aren’t purists to traditional mariachi music as he would have them all be, but how dare he use “torture,” “dreadful” and “children” in the same sentence?

Twenty minutes of children playing in an almost five-hour program should not have led his review of my show. Yes, “somebody out there is watching over Mariachi” and our children, Mr. Lopetegui, and it certainly isn’t you.

RODRI J. RODRIGUEZ

Executive Producer

Mariachi USA Festival

Studio City