Mariachi Music Essay

Mariachi Bands are Mexican bands that consist of guitarists, violinists, and trumpeters. It originated in Jalisco, in the city of Cocula in Western Mexico in the 19th century. Sometimes it can have more than twenty musicians. Before, they used to have harps and later it was replaced by the vihuela, which is a high-pitched five string guitar and a guitarrón, which is a small-scaled acoustic bass. The term mariachi itself came around 1852. Some say that it was the French word for marriage. Others say that it came from the language of the Coca Indians. This would have been around the 16th century. They say that the platform on which the musicians performed could have been called mariachi.

Mariachi music is a mixture of many cultures. Some examples are Spanish cultures and African cultures. The mariachi were basically workers who moved from one hacienda to another trying to find work where they could. They were almost like messengers moving from one town to another singing songs about war heroes and so on. They would play in public places and people had to pay to hear them sing.

Mariachi can be a group of men, women, or both. They also wear different kinds of costumes. For example, according to this article that I read online, males were the classic outfit of the Jalisco horsemen or charro, while the female wears a hand-woven shawl and a bright sequined skirt. Men also wear sombreros. Not only that, but they also have different kinds of traditional dances and the certain movements that come with it. Some of these traditional dances are called zapateado, which originated in Spain and the Mexican Hat Dance, which originated in