Mariachi Americano

Tomorrow is my birthday and because it falls in the middle of the week, my wife and I decided to celebrate a few days early on Sunday by going out for dinner and some live music. A few weeks ago, I read a Facebook update from “Our Tiempo,” an entertainment blog that stated there would be a free show of Mariachi El Bronx at the Double Door here in Chicago. Upon seeing the words “free,” “mariachi,” and the “Bronx” strung together I had to read more.  After reading the post and a few other online sources I learned that Mariachi El Bronx is an iteration of the punk band The Bronx. A few years ago, the Southern California band put together some songs in the mariachi style, along with other Mexican styles such as jarocho and norteño. As they state on their website, “mariachi music is every bit as much of a soundtrack to southern California as punk.” They have a couple of albums now that are completely in these styles.

Compelled further by the story, I had to take an actual listen to their music. I was excited, but reserved my enthusiasm out of fear that their music would be too punk, an unsuccessful mash-up of genres, or simply just bad music. I was more than pleasantly surprised after watching about a dozen of their tracks on YouTube; I even became a little obsessed, finding spare moments to give their music another listen whenever I could. This is a band that has appeared on both Conan and David Letterman, and as you can see by Letterman’s reaction, they have a real wide-ranging appeal and incredibly, play music that is really “beautiful.”

One of the trademarks of Mariachi El Bronx is that they don complete mariachi suits when playing, and that they also play traditional Mexican instruments like the vihuela and the guitarrón. While they include a couple of Latino/Mexican-American members, including the son of David Hidalgo from Los Lobos, they are mostly a bunch of white guys and an Asian on violin (seems like a stereotype, but it’s true). Again, doubt can easily be raised about the authenticity of the motives of this group of musicians: is it parody? Is it a cheap imitation? A gimmick?

Upon seeing them live, I had my answer. These guys are real honest to goodness punk mariachis, from their ostrich skin boots, upholstered belts and customized belt buckles, to their ability to drink Tecate and play music, these guys played original Mexican music sung in English that is no less authentic than La Negra or Guadalajara.

The reaction from a really diverse crowd in terms of age, ethnicity, and gender was amazing. People were singing along, shouting out gritos, dancing and moshing. The love that the band received and gave was great. And as proof of their "mariachi-ness" I felt no less pride on hearing them play, with the bass thumping through my chest, than if I were hearing mariachis play at a wedding.

What I took away was that culture from south of the border has really mixed with American culture in an incredible way that still maintains an authentic identity. Gustavo Arellano, the writer of the “Ask a Mexican” column in the OC Weekly, and author of a recent book on Mexican cuisine in the U.S. makes the argument that mash-ups and iterations of Mexican food are all authentic and prove the strength of Mexican culture. Rather than decrying what is authentically Mexican or not, these evolutions are beyond flattery and show the adaptability and resilience of a culture whose essence remains. It also shows its allure beyond natives to the point that is able to incorporate them into the mix. The Mexican philosopher José Vasconcelos called the Mexican people “La Raza Cósmica,” or the cosmic race, a race of the future, because of their cultural ability to develop and persist in this way.

This idea comes at a time when there have been two important demographic developments; first, Mexican migration to the U.S. has come to a virtual halt, and second, that minority births, many of those Latino, are now outnumbering white births in the U.S. While it may seem that there is a possibility for a decline in the presence of the Mexican culture because of the first shift, it seems that the salsa is out of the bottle, because what it means to be American is not a change that will happen when those newborns come of age, it is a change that is already here-and it sounds like mariachi music—in English.