APTOS — Given the large Hispanic population of Santa Cruz County, it should come as no surprise the wide variety of Mariachi bands that have flourished. From youth groups to professional adult ensembles, there are opportunities at all levels to perform the styles of music that are a major part of Mexican culture.
Cabrillo College will be tapping into this with its inaugural Mariachi Festival, which will be bringing six local Mariachi groups of all age groups to perform at Samper Recital Hall Sunday.
John Graulty, the dean of Visual, Applied and Performance Arts at Cabrillo, said the festival coincides with a new Mariachi ensemble course that was introduced at the college in the spring, which he noted has drawn a lot of interest.
“Cabrillo College is a Hispanic-serving institution, so we’re trying to build more culturally relevant curriculum,” he said. “In music, this is one of our efforts to create a Mariachi course.”
Additionally, the school also has launched a new Mariachi certificate of completion that includes the Mariachi ensemble performance course as well as courses in self-promotion through social media, fundamentals in recording and an arts entrepreneurship course called “Self-Directed Creative Careers.”
The department was approached by Ron Sandidge, local concert promoter and assistant principal at Pajaro Valley High School in Watsonville, about hosting a Mariachi concert. From there, invitations were sent out to local Mariachi groups resulting in a lineup of six ensembles running the gamut from youth to high school to college to professional groups.
The lineup consists of:
• Mariachi Osos de Pájaro High School, a teen ensemble composed of students from Pajaro Valley and Watsonville high schools that performs at many school and community events.
• Mariachi Ilusión, an ensemble who are part of the Activities 4 All nonprofit composed of members ages 6 to 16.
• Cabrillo Mariachi Ensemble, a group of Cabrillo College students who perform traditional Mexican popular music.
• Mariachi Eterno de UCSC, an ensemble of UC Santa Cruz students founded in 2018.
• Mariachi Libertad, a Watsonville-based ensemble with musicians throughout the Monterey Bay region.
• Mariachi Santa Cruz, a Santa Cruz-based group who have played numerous events since 2009. The members have roots in Jalisco, Michoacán and Guanajuato.
Additionally, Mariachi ensemble performance professor Rodolfo Vega will be the master of ceremonies for the festival.
Graulty likes the diversity in ages of the ensembles.
“It gives the community a sense of how impactful Mariachi music is and how valued it is from youngsters all the way up through professionals,” he said.
The festival will not be the only celebration of Mexican culture at Cabrillo this year. In August, the college will be hosting folk dancers and musicians from Universidad Veracruzana in Xalapa, Veracruz, for a 10-day residency at the Aptos and Watsonville campuses and will include public workshops in Mexican folk dance and music as well as gala performances at Cabrillo’s Crocker Theater and the Henry J. Mello Center for the Performing Arts on the Watsonville High campus.
Graulty hopes the festival will make audiences more aware of the many opportunities for playing in Mariachi ensembles, including the course at Cabrillo.
“We hope that the community gets a sense that Cabrillo College is interested in presenting culturally relevant music in our community,” he said.
The festival is 2 p.m. Sunday at Samper Recital Hall on Cabrillo’s Aptos campus, 6500 Soquel Drive. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at the Crocker Theater box office noon to 6 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and one hour before the performance. They can also be purchased online at Cabrillo.edu/vapa/#events.