Move over, mariachi men

Andrew Glazer

FAIRGROUNDS -- Who said mariachis couldn’t wear pink pantsuits?

The nation’s first all-women mariachi band, the 13-piece Mariachi La

Reyna de Los Angeles, rocked the Arlington Theater on Sunday, and

everyone in the audience of 6,000 seemed to embrace their feminine take

on a traditionally macho music.

“When I was a kid, my mother used to put Mexican records into the

player,” said Art Ayala, a mariachi fan from Rialto. “Today to see women

playing, that’s cool. It’s really nice.”

The first documented mariachi band made up of women was a Mexico

City-based band called Mariachi Las Cornelas, which formed in the 1940s.

“Mariachi music is opening up like everything else,” said Rick

Leibert, president of Events Marketing Inc., which booked the act.

Mariachi La Reyna was one of five bands performing at the Orange County

Fair’s Fiesta Del Mariachi.

“It’s about time,” said Nancy Gonzales, who bounced her foot to the

boom of the bass guitar that was almost the size of its player. Her

daughter Natalie, 9, rocked her head. “It’ll give our girls something to

think about.”

Mariachi music, which comes from Mexico, was typically played by

roving bands of men wearing large sombreros, tight black pants and

waistcoats. Mariachi band members play trumpets, guitars and sing at high

volumes, injecting the occasional coyote-like howl when the mood is

right.

The songs can be about love, drinking or in Sunday’s case, the

inadequacies of men. With one song, the group scolded men for paying more

attention to their bottles of beer than their wives.

Most men in the audience laughed awkwardly while their wives and dates

cheered enthusiastically.

“With our next song, we hope to get forgiveness from all the men,”

said one band member through the roar of applause. “We better because we

have to go home with you.”

The band launched into a crowd-pleasing rendition of Mary Wells’ “My

Guy.”

“This is family music,” said Robert Garcia, 59, a mariachi fan from

Panorama City. “There’s no bad words or violence. It’s all about

tradition and love.”