Courtesy of Neal Preston
American singer Linda Ronstadt during her “Canciones De Mi Padre” concert in Los Angeles.
By Gabriel Gordillo
Guadalajara is the epicenter of Mexico’s mariachi maravillosos that broadcasts the emotional musical form throughout the nation.
Tucson, Arizona, however, is the home of two Americans who spread it around the world.
Superstar recording artist Linda Ronstadt is one. Superstar mariachi educator Dr. Jeff Nevin is the other.
Ronstadt had already been a rock and popular music luminary for 20 years when she stunned her fans with her 1987 mariachi masterpiece “Canciones de mi Padre.” It was more than just a passion project. Ronstadt, a fully bilingual Chicana, proved to be a remarkable mariachi singer. Her record of classics with Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan was a Grammy winner and the greatest selling non-English album of all time.
Nevin was a mariachi trumpet player in a Tucson high school when he first met Ronstadt. He said she made the musical form popular around the world with “Canciones de mi Padre” and the subsequent tour.
“Before Linda, there were mariachi programs that would start and stop,” Nevin said. “They could never quite get their footing. But after ‘Canciones de Mi Padre,’ there was a surge.”
Ronstadt proved that American and European audiences could connect with mariachi and would buy the records and attend concerts.
“The presidents of colleges and high school districts saw that and started saying ‘I want mariachi in my school,’” said Nevin. “Whereas before Linda, if anyone wanted a mariachi program they had to fight to get permission to do it. You’d do it on your lunch hour, you’d do it before school. But now they will hire a full-time guy to make it happen. She completely changed the nature of mariachi music in the United States.”
Nevin is the other part of the surge. Growing up in a Latino Tucson community with mariachi musicians inspired him to learn Spanish fluently and play in local groupos. He studied music composition in college, crowned by a Ph.D. in Music Composition from UCSD.
Southwestern College was the first college in America to start a mariachi program and Nevin was hired in 1998 as its director. He set out to develop curriculum and SWC became the first college to offer an Associate’s degree in mariachi music.
Nevin, like a true champion, evolved way beyond his job as SWC’s director of mariachi activities. He became the Johnny Appleseed of the art form, developing textbooks for teachers around the world and songbooks for musicians. For a quarter of a century he has worked tirelessly to spread mariachi to schools throughout the United States, organize concerts to celebrate the form and raises hundreds of thousands in scholarships to encourage young mariachi musicians to pursue higher education.
He has also, quietly, kicked down doors for women mariachis, who for generations were discouraged from playing and singing in a male-dominated culture. He inspired the two-time Grammy-winning Mariachi Divas, several of which are his former students. He said he wanted to pay homage to Ronstadt by propelling other women singers and instrumentalists into the professional world.
Southwestern Mariachi singer Sandra Camarena said there were no opportunities for women in mariachi when she was in high school and college.
“It’s exciting to participate in a genre that I didn’t have access to when I was younger,” she said. “Mariachi classes were not offered in school for my generation.”
A retired elementary school teacher, Camarena sang with the San Diego Opera for 30 years, but said she is having a wonderful time singing mariachi at Southwestern with Dr. Nevin.
“I’ve felt a sense of loss because I appreciated mariachi music as a child and young adult but did not see any female role models,” she said. “It is very gratifying that I can now represent women – and especially women from my generation – in an art form which was male-dominated for decades.”
Nevin said stories like Camarena’s are heartwarming because she has worked with intention to make mariachi music more inclusive and available to musicians of the region.
“I feel like I owe it to the world to make it easier for more schools to implement mariachi and easier for teachers to teach mariachi,” he said.
Camarena’s bandmate Chelu Landa has been an “on-and-off” member of Southwestern’s mariachi program for more than 20 years, he said. He left for a while to pursue filmmaking in Mexico. He shares that same approach to music, he said, and yearns to pass down the emotion of mariachi to the next generation.
“It’s being in contact with your roots,” he said. “When you hear the music you hear everything, you feel everything. It’s food for the soul.”
Landa said he has been around mariachi music his entire life. His ancestors were mariachis in Jalisco, he said, and he was a makeup artist for female mariachi singers.
“Being a member of the group, represents a challenge,” he said. “You are an example for the new generation and can help them to be proud of what they are. Sometimes we forget that music has no age.”
Southwestern College has four mariachi bands that allow musicians to gain proficiency and move up. The top group is Mariachi Garibaldi, named for one of Nevin’s most cherished mentors.
Another of Nevin’s most cherished mariachis is Ronstadt, who he met with recently. The great star is struggling with Parkinson’s disease and can no longer sing, but Nevin said he was fortunate to meet with her on a good day.
“It was great to actually have the opportunity to speak with her,” he said.
Nevin said he was also happy to have his new violin concerto, Aves de Xenote, performed at the Performing Arts Center by the SWC Symphony Orchestra this month. He said he is looking forward to a January 17 performance of Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan at the San Diego Civic Theatre to benefit the Mariachi Scholarship Foundation. Mariachi Garibaldi will open. It is like opening for The Beatles, he said.
“It will be an amazing show and it supports a great cause, so I hope we get a good turnout from the Southwestern College community.”
