Latin pop has been enjoying an unprecedented renaissance over the last several years, thanks to the massive popularity of artists such as Bad Bunny, Shakira, Peso Pluma, Karol G and J. Balvin. However, a deeper-rooted Latin forerunner is also fostering increased interest of its own: mariachi music. And that’s thanks in no small measure to the Mata family.
Love of family, culture, music and education have always been the pillars behind the Mata family and its creative and professional pursuits. It’s what propelled LMU alum Richard Mata M.A. ’19 and wife, Esperanza, to launch the nonprofit Mariachi Conservatory in their native Boyle Heights — a richly historic Mexican American neighborhood in East Los Angeles — in 2007.
With their two daughters, fellow LMU grad Angelica M.A. ’23 and America, the family has also established a string mariachi quartet that regularly performs on Sundays at their local church, Our Lady Queen of Angels (La Placita), as well as at private functions and other events. The foursome debuted the new lineup at LMU in 2023, performing at the KXLU co-sponsored silver anniversary celebration of KXLU’s Serenata de Tríos program before a sold-out audience at Murphy Recital Hall.
“We’re not just musicians, we’re educators,” emphasizes Richard, who works during the day as music director at L.A.’s Salesian High School. “We’re thriving in what we love, communicating that through our performances and the conservatory.”
In addition to their music being featured in programs for Netflix and HBO, the family has shared the stage with a host of renowned and Grammy-winning acts. Those include Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, Mariachi Los Camperos, Mariachi Sol de Mexico, Guadalupe Pineda, San Cha, Gaby Moreno, Little Willie G., Martha Gonzalez and La Marisoul. Alongside L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis and operatic tenor Arturo Chacón-Cruz, the Mata family received the 2019 Domingo Award from Hispanics for LA Opera and the LA Opera in recognition of their talent, leadership and dedication to the Los Angeles art community.
The Mata family — Angelica, Esperanza, Richard and America — return home after a September 2024 show at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes. They perform frequently at major L.A. cultural centers, including Olvera Street, above, and Mariachi Plaza, in East Los Angeles.
To train the younger generations in the mariachi tradition has been a primary goal of the Matas’ mariachi conservatory.
Throughout the senior Matas’ 30+-year mariachi journey — including gigs in France and other locales — the primary goals behind their passion-driven endeavors have never wavered. From the start, their aim has been to preserve and provide affordable mariachi music classes to underserved families in and outside Los Angeles, build increased interest in Latin culture and mariachi among the younger generations, and advocate the need for more female representation in the genre.
Dating back to at least the early 19th century, mariachi is Mexican folk or ranchera music performed by small bands comprised of trumpeters, guitarists and violinists. There are different notions as to the origin of the genre’s moniker. One theory says it stems from the name of the wood used to make the dance platforms built for parties and other events featuring mariachi bands. Another theory traces the name’s derivation to the French word mariage (marriage), relating to the French empire’s 1860s intervention in Mexico and mariachi music being performed at weddings.
“Mariachi is everything from baptisms and birthdays to weddings, anniversaries and funerals —the biggest milestones in your life. It’s very much something divine,” says Angelica, who teaches pre-school at Saint Thomas the Apostle school in Los Angeles.
“It’s about every emotion possible from love, heartbreak and anger to [reflections] on life and various experiences,” adds America, who also works as a writing tutor for East Los Angeles College.
Each of the four Mata family members experienced their own personal epiphanies as they embraced the mariachi tradition. Growing up, Richard’s genre of choice was heavy metal rock.
For Richard Mata (left), and his wife, Esperanza (right), performing and teaching mariachi connects family and generations through time.
“My parents never thought I was going to do mariachi music,” he recalls with a laugh. Then in middle school, he and a friend became curious when a teacher visited their guitar class and asked if anyone would like to participate in the school’s new mariachi program. “We raised our hands … and that’s what started it all,” he says.
Unlike her eventual husband, middle school teacher Esperanza was starting high school when she became interested in the genre. And she didn’t discover until then that her grandfather and great-grandfather had both been semi-professional mariachi musicians in the ’40s and ’50s.
“Richard was first generation in our school’s mariachi program, but I was third generation,” says Esperanza. “I didn’t know that part of my history until I began playing. But somehow destiny guided me toward the class and the music; it’s also how I got started teaching music. East L.A. was so gang-infested then with fights and drive-bys. It almost seemed like there was no way out. It was through mariachi music that I was able to see more of a positive outlook for my life and future.”
Elder daughter Angelica remembers that as a child, “I didn’t want to play mariachi; I didn’t like it.” That is until she turned 12 and her parents invited her to attend one of their concerts. Her first time watching them perform live before an audience became a major turning point in her life. “As I saw how people were reacting to their singing and playing,” she says, “I had a coming-back-home moment where I felt my soul was telling me, ‘You need to do this.’ It was the best decision of my life.”
Angelica Mata decided she wanted to play mariachi music at 12 years of age when she first saw her parents perform. “It was the best decision of my life.”
America also cites middle school as the period when she became more serious about mariachi. “My mother was still performing when she was pregnant with my sister and myself. I was taught violin since I was very little, so I would accompany my parents and sister to Sunday Mass and play. But it was after I went to art school that I took a deep plunge into educating myself and furthering my professional skills with mariachi and the violin.”
In the 17 years since establishing the Mariachi Conservatory, the Matas steadfastly remain united in their efforts to keep paying forward their passion for the music, preservation of the culture and nurturing mariachi’s next-gen evolution. Three days a week the conservatory holds classes at Salesian High School: Tuesdays and Thursdays are devoted to instrument lessons; Wednesdays are dedicated to vocal training. Students range in age from 4 years old to 75 years young. During the pandemic, the senior Matas continued to provide lessons online to students in the L.A. area as well as other states and even countries, including Texas, Nevada, Colorado, Australia and Canada.
The fruits of the Matas’ twin musical and educational passions have now come full bloom. That’s because many of the conservatory’s former students have continued to pursue their mariachi studies at the university level — and beyond. Among the colleges that Richard ticks off are Cal Poly Pomona, UCLA, Cal State L.A. and UC Berkeley. One student, the family learned, has established a mariachi program at Princeton.
“We also have former students who are now playing with professional mariachi groups,” Richard adds. “In our program, we instill this sense of continuing the tradition and passing it on. So, it’s been very rewarding to see our students continue to do this, whether it’s professionally, at the university level or even in their local school districts where they’re teaching. One of the reasons why we created the conservatory was because of many [school] music programs being underfunded. So being able to plant those seeds … we’re rich in that manner.”
To teach young girls the mariachi tradition is important to Angelica Mata because, she says, there were few female role models when she was their age.
One of the reasons why we created the conservatory was because of many [school] music programs being underfunded.
The Latin pop renaissance is also planting seeds in terms of sparking more mainstream interest in the Latin culture and its various musical offshoots including mariachi. Angelica says she first saw indications of the mainstream shift during her years as a college undergrad and graduate student.
“Similar to my come-back-home moment, there’s more of a want and need for traditional music,” she explains. “I’m seeing that with artists like [Grammy- and Latin Grammy-nominated] Lupita Infante, the granddaughter of ranchera singer/actor Pedro Infante. Or Angela Aguilar [third generation of the legendary Aguilar family]. Seeing them making their way, while bringing the traditional to the mainstream, is very exciting.”
America agrees, referencing mariachi’s other foundational forefathers like José Alfredo Jiménez and Vicente Fernández (aka “The King of Ranchera Music”). They in turn gave way to Aida Cuevas, Luis Miguel and Fernández’s son Alejandro. And they have now opened the door for emerging newcomers like Julian Torres, who this year became the first mariachi artist signed to rap legend Snoop Dogg’s Death Row Records.
“The grandchildren of these super artists in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s and others are bringing mariachi back but with a modern twist,” says America. “Their interpretations are a breath of fresh air as they’re doing it in a way that’s authentic to not only the traditional sound but to their own artistry, which is key. Hearing this new wave of mariachi — very much a blend of all the other kinds of music we listen to now — is one of the most exciting things about this renaissance.”
Ethnomusicologist Estevan Azcona, assistant professor of Mexican American studies at the University of Arizona, draws an even bolder through line between how the Mexican American community views mariachi music’s influence within the spectrum of Mexican popular music. “When you think of regional Mexican music today, it has a vein that’s very strongly tied to the ranchera singer,” explains Azcona, a former mariachi performer himself. “But now it’s much broader. The styles today encompass a wide range of Mexican musical sounds that are may be accordion-based, horn-based like the bandas or a mix of popular styles outside of Mexico, either from Latin America or beyond.”
Referencing popular Latin touring stars today such as Juan Gabriel and the aforementioned Luis Miguel, Azcona says that with the music comes a fervent cultural connection. While his family’s ancestors are from Mexico, Azcona notes that he and his parents were born here in the states. So, maintaining those cultural roots takes on even more significance from this side of the border.
“Mariachi is one of the sounds that [carry] a very close tie,” says Azcona. “We also feel strongly about the sounds of other styles of Latin American music. So, when you hear cumbia, salsa, a Cuban song or Puerto Rican bomba, those things also resonate in ways that are unique to our experiences here. And southern mariachi is part of that sonic history, whether one is Mexican or not. It’s part of that kaleidoscope of sounds that make up being brown in the United States.”
However, there’s one longstanding issue in mariachi that the Matas are determined to rectify: establishing more female representation. As with the overall music industry, mariachi remains a very male-dominated arena.
“Women in the U.S. have been performing in mariachi groups since the ’50s,” says Esperanza. “But because many of them haven’t been part of the elite, more famous groups [in the genre], women are still a novelty. They’re not seen.”
“When my students perform, I have grandparents and grandparents come up to me crying and telling me, ‘I cannot believe my son, or daughter, is performing mariachi music,’ ” says Richard Mata.
We’re paving the way for female mariachis to have the same accessibility as their male counterparts.
Working to change that scenario prior to the pandemic, Esperanza put together a mariachi girl group at the conservatory that also included her daughters. Since then, both America and Angelica are seeing a shift, with more women starting their own all-female mariachi groups.
“When I was growing up, my dad always established the importance of having men and women in his group,” says Angelica. “So, it wasn’t until I started talking to my peers that I found people weren’t always aware of [including] women. It also used to be if a woman was a mariachi, she was playing the violin. Now I see women playing guitars and trumpets. In talking to the incredible female musicians in this genre, things are definitely moving toward the positive light with women pushing back and creating their own groups.”
Adds America, “It’s empowering to see us creating these spaces for ourselves. And we’re paving the way for female mariachis to have the same accessibility as their male counterparts — not only for our generation but for new generations to come.”
“Women in the U.S. have been performing in mariachi groups since the ’50s,” says Esperanza Mata.
Advocating for more female representation onstage also extends to roles behind the scenes from songwriters and producers to composers and arrangers. Picking up that baton from her dad is Angelica. The singer/songwriter/musician’s 2021 debut single “Mariachi Plaza,” a moving and lively tribute to the family’s cultural touchstone Boyle Heights, was one of 10 works commissioned for the “Sounds of California: Boyle Heights,” a project from the Alliance for California Traditional Arts.
Moving forward, Richard’s long-range vision includes launching a record label and a publishing company. On the drawing board in the meantime are plans to support more school districts by providing the needed tools and resources for educators and students to integrate mariachi into their art programs and curricula across the country. Concurrently, he’s laser-focused on further developing the Matas’ identity as a family quartet and planting more creative seeds at the conservatory to continue fortifying the cultural force that is mariachi.
The Matas’ mariachi band concludes a show at the LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes in Los Angeles..
“Every time we get the opportunity to perform together, I think everybody realizes that we’re creating this very transcendental and intimate moment,” he says. “That connection, that musical part is like therapy for us. That’s when it really, really hits home.”
