A Declaration of Love

There was a time in Mexico when every romance began with a late-night mariachi serenade and a love letter passed through an ivy trellis. In fact, says Jose “Pepe” Martinez of the premier Mexican mariachi group Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan, singing was the only proper way for a man to declare his love.

These days, midnight mariachi serenades have gone the way of covered wagons, but the music is still going strong in concert halls as far away as Tokyo.

Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan celebrates its 100th anniversary on Saturday in a concert at Cal State Dominguez Hills. The event also features Lucha Villa--known as “La Gran Sen~ora de Mariachi”--and San Antonio favorites Mariachi Campanas de Mexico. Children’s group Mariachi Juvenil Alma de Mexico will also perform.

Chances are that if you’ve heard any mariachi music, you’ve heard “El Son de la Negra,” which Sylvestre Vargas, son of Vargas founder Gaspar Vargas, composed in 1944. Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan was also the first mariachi group to put public domain favorites like “Las Man~anitas” and “Cielito Lindo” on vinyl in one of the group’s 98 albums.

The group also boasts more than 1,000 appearances on albums as accompanying group and more than 200 appearances on movie soundtracks or as special guest stars in films from Mexico’s golden era.

Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan takes its name from the small city in the western state of Jalisco where Gaspar Vargas formed the group in 1897. Though the turnover hasn’t been high--members tend to remain for most of their professional lives--the musicians in the current lineup represent the group’s fourth generation.

Ranging in age from 23 to 69, the 12 current members are some of the most accomplished musicians in Mexico, many coming from a long line of mariachis. Martinez, whose son Jose “Pepe” Martinez Jr. is the group’s youngest member, came to Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan by way of family himself. His father, who was briefly a member of the group’s second generation, taught him to play the guitar and violin at an early age.

“By the time I was 6 years old, I was playing on trains to earn money to eat,” says the elder Martinez, 56, the group’s first violinist.

AKA Productions’ Dwayne Ulloa, who is organizing Saturday’s event, said it is traditions like the Martinez family’s that he is trying to preserve by bringing the music of Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan to Southern California.

Still, Ulloa said he is disheartened by a lack of interest in mariachi groups by major record labels and by Spanish-language radio stations that make more money playing pop ballads than by offering their listeners the richness of classical mariachi music.

“This group survived the Mexican revolution of 1910, which took many lives,” says Ulloa. “How do you put a price tag on that?”

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BE THERE

Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan, Saturday at 7 p.m. at Cal State Dominguez Hills’ Olympic Velodrome, Carson. $20-$70. (310) 535-0866.