Image: Beyonce Gomez, violinist for Mariachi de la Isla, singing a rendition of “No Llega el Olvido” by Latin music icon, Jenny Rivera.
Story, Photos and Translation by Victoria Escobedo
On April 3, 2024, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi’s Performing Arts Center kicked off its 4th-annual Festival del Mariachi, a four-daylong festival honoring a rich and colorful tradition from Mexico.
The performances started Wednesday night at 6 p.m. with TAMUCC’s own mariachi, Mariachi de la Isla, and Alcorta’s Folklórico Diamante. Thursday featured the Corpus Christi Chorale, and on Friday, Mariachi Mariposas performed.
The director of Mariachi Internacional, David J. Rivera is actually a Corpus Christi native. Rivera had heard about the Festival del Mariachi for a couple of years, but it wasn’t until he reached out to one of his previous professors from Del Mar, Dr. Thorton, that he and Mariachi Internacional were able to partake in the festival as well.
“She [Dr. Thorton] got me in contact with Dr. Morales and we got an invite,” Rivera said. “And so in the middle of the year, we had to kind of shift things a little bit so we could bring the kids from Vegas all the way over here.”
To Rivera, bringing his mariachi all the way from Las Vegas to Corpus Christi was a full-circle moment.
“I grew up playing mariachi here in this town at all the old restaurants that are no long here anymore,” said Rivera. “And then leaving for college, ending up in Vegas teaching mariachi, and then finally, after 20 or so years, coming back with my own kids was very emotional for me.”
It’s commonly said that ‘Music is a universal language’, and the performance from Mariachi Internacional was a testament not only to this statement but also to the unity and diversity that the Festival del Mariachi encompassed.
“Coming down to Corpus was actually really fun,” Nathalie Herdez, a violinist and vocalist for Mariachi Internacional, said. “We’ve actually never been here; we usually go to San Antonio for competitions, but it was really fun coming here…. And there were a lot of different people; seeing the different mariachis here was really cool.”
Although each mariachi performance was unique to the performers, they all carried the same energy and pride for the music, the tradition, and the culture.
“Mariachi is just a different type of music,” Herdez said. “It makes you happy when you hear it; it could be happy, it could be sad, it could put you through so many emotions in just one sitting. And I think to everybody, it’s just a cultural thing.”
To close out the four-day-long festival, Mariachi de la Isla performed at 11:00 a.m. Spanish mass on Sunday, April 7, at the Corpus Christi Cathedral alongside the Mariachi Catedral. The Festival del Mariachi was a success and united people from all over the Coastal Bend to celebrate a tradition of music, history, and pride.