East Harlem – It’s Mariachi Time
All’s quiet outside of Saint Paul School in East Harlem. The rain-slicked streets are empty, the students gone.
Crack open the door, though, and you hear a flurry of notes. Trumpets blaring. Violins dancing. The throaty voice of a woman, her lyrics in Spanish spilling out into the hallway.
Ah, mariachi!
And this isn’t your father’s mariachi band, a bunch of men drinking Tequila as they strum away in a cantina or on the subway.
Oh no, this is the real thing: Mariachi music has arrived.
The band, Mariachi Real De Mexico, was formed some 20 years ago by Ramon Ponce Jr. and his father. About 10 years later, Mr. Ponce’s younger brother, Miguel, joined.
Now the three, along with the Villalobos brothers and several others, are full-time musicians.
Tonight, it’s crunch time. The band, like many others across the region, is preparing for the busiest weekend of the year, when the Virgin of Guadalupe festivities are held. This year, the holiday falls on Monday, so all weekend long mariachi bands will be performing furiously at church Masses and events, catering to the region’s booming Mexican population, whose churches will book bands a year in advance.
For the Real De Mexico men—and two women—that means loading up into Mr. Ponce Jr.’s GMC Yukon (the license plate reads “Mariachi”) and zooming between up to 20 performances in three days, including at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Sunday night, a 1 a.m. performance at a Bushwick church and another one in Jackson Heights at 5 a.m.
“When it comes to Our Lady of Guadalupe, everyone wants to have mariachi music,” says Mr. Ponce Jr. “As soon as we’re done performing, they say, ‘We want you back next year.”
A day later, in a one-bedroom apartment in Bayside, the men that make up Mariachi Mendoza are practicing for the more than a dozen events they are booked for.
Their band is newer, formed about two years ago, said Jorge Mendoza, whose company, ViolinMen, performs other types of music, too.
Mr. Mendoza played in an orchestra when he lived in Mexico. Now, “it’s only mariachi,” he says.
“Almost every weekend we perform,” he says. “Weddings, parties, serenades, cultural hours, all kinds of events.”
And the music’s popularity extends beyond the Mexican community.
Other Latino groups and even Asians, such as Indians, book the band for weddings and events.
“It’s very popular in every culture,” he said.
One of the oldest and most established mariachi bands is Mariachi Tapatio de Alvaro Paulino.
Alvaro Paulino Sr. started the band in 1983. He still plays the trumpet and his son, Alvaro Paulino Jr., 28 years old, plays the trumpet and violin. Mariachi playing goes back five generations in their family.
Mr. Paulino Jr.’s father began the band the year he was born. “He was one of the first mariachis here when there was like no mariachi work at all,” said Mr. Paulino Jr. “He was only gigging once every three months.”
For Mr. Paulino Jr., who was born in the U.S. and whose mother is Puerto Rican, the mariachi music is a link to a country that he’s never called home. “The music is so strong, it has pulled us over more toward our Mexican culture,” he said.
Mr. Paulino Jr. started a mariachi conservatory in Bushwick, where he lives. The conservatory holds group and private lessons. He’s also the mariachi director at a program run by a nonprofit out of the Brooklyn Music School that began last year, and he started an all-female mariachi band in February.
Mariachi bands have had to overcome the stigma of not being taken seriously. But these days, almost all the established bands in the region are composed of trained musicians. They have snazzy websites and agents, do recordings and get multiple, custom-made outfits from selected tailors in Mexico.
Many have made television appearances and have played alongside some of the world’s most eminent musicians.
Last month, the genre received international recognition from the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO), an act that was hailed by mariachi musicians across the world.
“It was a big thing for us mariachis,” said Mr. Paulino Jr.
The Ponce family began the Mariachi Academy of New York 10 years ago. The nonprofit teaches mariachi to youth out of Saint Paul School in East Harlem. Demand is high and the waiting list includes some 80 people, says Mr. Ponce Jr.
“We don’t do any advertising or anything like that,” he says. “I’m sure if we did we’d have hundreds because the Mexican community is growing so fast and everybody is interested in the music or the food.”
On a recent day at practice, Ramon Ponce Jr., stood tall and proud, strumming a large guitarron, or bass guitar. His father and young brother played the trumpet.
Humberto Flores strummed a vihuela, or five-string guitar. And Alberto and Luis Villalobos, brothers from Veracruz, Mexico, who are considered violin virtuosos, fiddled away. (The brothers—along with a third brother—compose their own music for a separate, acclaimed band, the Villalobos Brothers, which plays Latin jazz and other music.)
A picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe before them, the men burst into a lively rendition of “La Guadalupana.”
Female singers Yolanda Garcia and Angelica Vargas sing and everyone joins in for the chorus:
Y eran mexicanos y eran mexicanos
Y eran mexicanos su porte y su faz.
On Sunday night at about 11 p.m., the band will return to Saint Paul’s for a Mass that is expected to attract more than 2,000 people. They will play this song over and over again until every congregant receives communion:
Desde entonces para el Mexicano
Desde entonces para el Mexicano
Ser Guadalupano, ser Guadalupano
Ser Guadalupano es algo esencial.
Write to Sumathi Reddy at sumathi.reddy@wsj.com