Fiesta Navidad: Building on Success : Los Camperos’ Annual Mariachi Bash at the Performing Arts Center Is Now a 20-City Tour

Christmas, as celebrated in Mexico, comes to the Orange County Performing Arts Center tonight in the colorful form of the annual Fiesta Navidad. It’s a combination of mariachi music, traditional dance, Christmas legends and a merry sing-along, featuring Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano and Ballet Folklorico Ollin.

Appropriately, the Fiesta Navidad will begin with a posadas procession.

“We try,” said Nati Cano, leader and founder of Los Camperos, “to re-create the celebration that is done in Mexico every Christmas Eve. People go from house to house like Joseph and Mary asking for shelter. And people invite you in, give you something to eat, and you have fun, play games, sing.

“It’s been celebrated that way for a long time. So, in our program, we do the same thing visually with the dancers--with a procession and singing, with the breaking of the pinata, with children’s songs. We explain what everything means, and it’s fascinating--educational and entertaining.”

“Actually,” he added, “the way it’s presented, it doesn’t take very much in the way of explanation. It’s like watching ‘The Nutcracker.’ You don’t have to understand Russian to enjoy it. When you see that, you know what’s going on.”

Cano’s group first played at the center five years ago. Now, the Fiesta Navidad program has expanded to a tour that encompasses 20 cities and a good portion of the Western United States.

“The first program,” said Cano, “had nothing to do with Christmas. It was just a concert of mariachi music. Then, when we decided to do it again, the first idea that came up--and it was a good one--was to do a Fiesta Navidad. Why not? It was the Christmas season. And we’ve been doing it ever since.”

Cano, 65, comes by his mariachi connections naturally. He was born in Jalisco, Mexico, and was captivated by mariachi almost from the time he began to study the violin. Initially working with his father in cafes and cantinas, he joined Mariachi Chapala in Mexicali in 1950, moving on to become musical director of Tijuana’s Mariachi Aguila in 1961. In 1969, he gave the ensemble its current name and moved it to Los Angeles.

“This group has actually been together,” he said, “under both names, for 37 years already. We have had some players with us for nearly 30 years. Sometimes I think it’s not possible. But I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished. There are a lot of mariachis all over the place--good ones and bad ones. To bring the music to this kind of level, for this kind of concert--I’m very proud of what we’ve done.”

And with good cause. Mariachi Los Camperos’ achievements reach well beyond their annual Fiesta Navidad programs. For the last two decades, the ensemble has been a Southern California mariachi mainstay, based at La Fonda Restaurant in Los Angeles, and making television appearances including “The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson” and the Grammy Awards. In addition, Los Camperos performed with Linda Ronstadt on her “Canciones de Mi Padre” album and have recorded seven albums of their own.

“We’ve also had the great honor to play at the White House,” Cano said, “and at Lincoln Center. In Mexico, we’ve played for the president of Mexico. And that’s funny, when you think about it. For us to play mariachi in Mexico, it’s kind of like taking pineapples to Hawaii.”

Cano feels that a good portion of Los Camperos’ success traces to the stability provided by the regular gigs at La Fonda.

“We opened the restaurant in 1969,” he said, “and it’s our home base. And it’s good to have, because it lets us choose where we want to go. If it’s good for us, we go and perform, if we don’t think it is, we just stay and perform at our restaurant. We’re open seven days a week, and we have people coming from all over the world.”

As delighted as Cano is about the successes of Los Camperos and the entranced audiences that attend the Fiesta Navidad performances, he also worries about the growing popularity of mariachi music.

“I just hope,” he said, “that it doesn’t become like opening shopping centers all over the city. Opening more shopping centers may be useful, but it doesn’t really improve the quality of life.

“The way I see it is this: Think about Mexican food. You can play with a taco. You can add fresh vegetables, you can have red sauce, you can have green sauce, you can put chili of this or that on it. But don’t put catsup on it. You can only go so far, and then it’s no longer a taco. Same thing with mariachi.”

There’s no danger of finding any catsup on the music of Los Camperos. Cano is determined that the ensemble continue his quest to maintain the music’s traditional elements while refining and enhancing its technical excellence.

“I hope,” he said, “that more people will be interested in seeing mariachi music as a form of art. This is what we’re trying to do. Because I am convinced that the music is worth that kind of consideration.

“We want to be invited to play in places like Italy, France and Russia. But in the right way--inside the performing arts centers. Not like, ‘Here come the mariachis. Play ‘La Bamba,’ play ‘Cielito Linda.’ I think it is time for mariachi to go beyond that.”

And, for Cano, the Fiesta Navidad program represents a big step in that direction.

“This is the kind of thing we want to do, in this kind of hall,” he said. “To have the trumpets play with tremendous energy, and then suddenly the violins become soft and romantic. In a concert like this, we can dream. Because people come to listen, to respond to the integrity and the quality of the music, and they’re not going to suddenly jump up to go to the bathroom or get hot dogs or beer.

“For me, that’s the best. It makes me feel very lucky. Because playing this music, in this way, in this kind of program, is not a job for me. This is my life.”

BE THERE

* The Philharmonic Society of Orange County presents “Fiesta Navidad,” with Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano, Ballet Folklorico Ollin and others, tonight at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 8 p.m. $15-$38. (949) 553-2422.