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mariachi los dorados brings the nostalgic music of mexico to the pne
for two decades, mariachi los dorados has been performing one of mexico's classical musics in canada
aug 22 2024
5 minute read
mariachi los dorados performs at the 2024 pne daily. photo: tom gould
tom gould 2024
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sun
vancouver-based mariachi los dorados — the golden mariachis — has made traditional mexican music with distinctly canadian flavour for the past 20 years. the 12-piece group returns to the pne fairgrounds this year, roaming around playing cantina classics from below the border.
for the pne, the group will play numerous sets each day. consult the daily schedule to find out where and when you can sing along to la cucaracha and other mariachi milestones.
with credits ranging from the 2010 winter olympics and the calgary stampede, to sharing stages with everyone from rockers big sugar and folk singer lila downs, the band has recorded a pair of albums with another one on the way. founder and bandleader alex alegria says the project is the product of passion and longing and a dream come true for the oaxaca born-and-raised musician.
“when i came to canada, one of my uncles gave me a mariachi suit saying that the longer i was away the more mexican i would become,” said alegria. “one day, i was feeling really homesick so i put it on and went down to robson street to play and it felt great. i did it regularly for about a year, playing my own songs because i didn’t really know much about playing mariachi music.”
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by year’s end, the solo operation had grown to include other players. catching the attention of a local fan, the group was approached to perform at a cinco de mayo celebration. but the gig had some conditions attached to it.
“he said that we would need to get our look in order, since i was the only one dressed as a mariachi at the time, and that we would need to be at least seven members,” said alegria. “so i took the challenge, ordered some hats from mexico, and we haven’t stopped since. all told, we are 14, with members from a number of different backgrounds.”
for many years, alegria was the only mexican member of the ensemble. he says that with the growth of the latinx community in town, there has been a rise in requests to join and opportunities to perform. coming to prominence in the 1700s, mariachi rancheras became popularized a distinctly mexican sound through official government promotion and cultural policy.
the music is now recognized as a unesco intangible cultural heritage, heard at everything from shopping mall openings to official ribbon-cutting ceremonies. alegria admits that he wasn’t much into the form when he grew up.
“i learned mariachi here, not in mexico, and it is a learning process all the time for all of us,” he said. “since launching, i have had the fortune to represent canada as a canadian mariachi in other countries and even in mexico. because we are quite far away from the source, i tend to focus on performing the more traditional standards so we can deliver to those people who are missing home or who know the country’s traditions who want to recall it hearing a special song.”
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while the band has added such modern classics as tequila and la bamba to its repertoire, alegria says he still loves touchstones like mexico lindo the most. one of the constant challenges for the group is learning more material, as requests from the crowd can often include tunes the band doesn’t know.
it’s a point of pride to not be caught out when a request comes in.
“in mexico, every town has, at the very least, one mariachi group and a special plaza where they perform,” he said. “the music is so much a part of the culture that you can hear it everywhere in the country. there is an enormous amount of music to draw from.”
to properly play the style requires both the right instruments and, obviously, the proper outfits. known as a traje de charro, or charro suit, the outfits consist of tight fitting decorated pants, cropped embroidered jackets, silk ties, dress shirts, wide pitea belt, wide-brimmed decorated sombrero hats and, often, pointy high-heeled leather boots. these outfits can often cost more than the custom instruments required to authentically recreate the sound, as the ornate embroidered designs can be complex.
“we have seven different outfits with different designs that i’ve developed through sharing ideas with our tailor,” said alegria. “one of the ones i am proudest of is the unique canadian one i came up with that is a huge success when we play out of the country. every design is different, but all have our name and design on the sleeves and the back.”
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there is an iconic tom gould photo on the band’s website of alegria wearing the red and white canada mariachi suit walking past the gastown steam clock on a snowy winter’s day. he says it captures the essence of the mariachi los dorados brand perfectly.
alex alegria of mariachi los dorados walks through gastown on a snowy vancouver winter day. he is wearing the band’s custom canadian suit.
cameron fraser
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sun
“that photo went viral in 2020 and got so wild that we had to schedule interviews to handle all the requests,” he said. “that really went a long way to establishing us all across canada and the world and opened up a lot of opportunities for us, taking us all across canada from both coasts to yukon, los angeles, las vegas and seven different states in mexico.”
mariachi los dorados maintains a busy schedule and is alegria’s full-time job today.
“i feel as if we are only getting started, as i want to tell everybody that canada has a wonderful mariachi and we are very proud of it,” he said.
examples of mariachi los dorados original music can be found on the group’s website .
mariachi los dorados members and instruments
alex alegria notes that mariachi los dorados performs in configurations ranging from a quintet to the full 14 member group. the membership reflects the multicultural composition of the band.
while some instruments such as trumpet, violin and guitar are easily sourced at local music retailers, others such as the huge bass guitarron or small scale vihuela must be custom ordered from mexico. the one instrument that has proven the hardest to find that he would love to add to the group is the harp, which does appear in some classical mariachi orchestras.
mark d’angelo — trumpet; jeremy vint, trumpet; patrick ernst, violin; paul chan, violin; michael krywulak, violin; boriz ulanowicz, violin; abraham barragan, violin; nathaniel wong, violin, roberto florencio, guitarron; alejandro hernandez, guitarron; angel banderas, vihuela; enrique hinojoza, guitar; ray alegria, guitar; alex alegria, guitar.
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