This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2011)

Mariachi is a genre of music that originated in the State of Jalisco, in Mexico. It is an integration of stringed instruments highly influenced by the cultural impacts of the historical development of Western Mexico. Throughout the history of mariachi, musicians have experimented with brass, wind, and percussion instruments. In addition, sociohistorical factors have influenced the repertoire in terms of the performance of diverse regional song forms as well as the evolution of the performance attire. Mariachi is important to the study of Mexican music because, as an ensemble created during the colonial period, it found its essence during the postcolonial era, blossomed during the nationalist era, and has made a global impact in contemporary times. Throughout this development, particularly since the nationalist era, mariachi music has become emblematic of Mexican music by appropriating various Mexican regional song forms, experimenting in popular radio programs, appearing in the earliest Mexican films, and performing during presidential campaigns (Loza 1993, Turino 2003, Sheehy 2005, de la Mora 2006, Jáuregui 2007).

"The consensus of modern scholars is that the word mariachi is indigenous to Mexico. The now-extinct Coca language of central Jalisco is the most frequently cited as its probable source. Legend erroneously attributes the word to the French Intervention of the 1860s, explaining it as a corruption of the French word mariage, and citing a similarity between mariachi (or its archaic variant, mariache) and the French word for wedding. Historical documents prove that both the word mariachi and the ensemble it designates pre-date the French occupation of Mexico, making any similarity with the French word a phonetic coincidence" (Clark, 1996).

The mariachi ensemble generally consists of violins, trumpets, a classical guitar, a vihuela (a high-pitched, five-string guitar), a guitarrón (a large acoustic bass guitar) and, on occasion, a harp. The musicians dress in silver-studded charro outfits with wide-brimmed hats. The original Mariachis were Mexican street musicians or buskers,^[1] but many today are professional entertainers making paid appearances in the entertainment industry. Professionals can usually play more than one instrument, and all can sing. They sometimes accompany ranchera singers such as Vicente Fernández or even pop star Luis Miguel. Although ranchera singers dress in a traje de charro (Charro suit), they are not considered mariachis. Mariachi music, as well as other forms of traditional Mexican music, is also noted for the grito mexicano, a yell done at musical interludes within a song, either by the musicians or the audience.

Mariachi Herencia Mexicana singers Celia Correa, formerly of Laredo, and Robert Vidaurri from San Antonio perform on March 20, 2010, in Zapata, Texas

Although mariachis play at events such as weddings and formal occasions such as a quinceañeras (a girl's fifteenth birthday celebration), they are often used to serenade women because many of the songs have romantic lyrics. Trios of mariachis may be found for hire to seranade; the best known venues are the Plaza de los Mariachis in Guadalajara and the Plaza Garibaldi in Mexico City). Mother's days are also a popular occasion for mariachis. Prices vary immensely and are seldom cheap.

Foreign tourists often confuse mariachis with other types of buskers seen in Mexico, such as the jarochos, typical of the State of Veracruz, or "norteño" bands, which come from the Northern states of Mexico. The term Mariachi refers only to musicians who dress and play in a style typical of Jalisco, though the style and music has spread far. Usually a guitarrón and a vihuela must be present for a group to be considered mariachi.

Mariachis playing at the Tenampa in Mexico City

Instrumentation[link]

Current mariachi instrumentation includes a guitarrón, a vihuela, a guitar, violins, and trumpets. Some groups might use a guitarra de golpe (a guitar mid-way in size and tone between the guitarrón and vihuela), a mariachi harp or even a flute. Since the 1970s some singers have occasionally added other instruments such as accordion, organ, keyboard, harmonica, saxophone and even drums, although they were considered additions, never part of the mariachi instrumentation itself. During the last years some artists have made fusions of mariachi with orchestra and percussion, giving birth to a Mariachi/pop ballad crossover style.

A complete mariachi group has as many as eight violins, two trumpets, and a guitar. The vihuela is a high-pitched, round-backed guitar-like instrument that gives the Mariachi its typical rhythmic vitality. The guitarrón is a deep-voiced guitar that serves as the bass of the ensemble. The mariachi harp usually doubles the bass line, but may also ornament the melody. These latter three instruments have European origins, but their present forms are strictly Mexican.

Musical forms[link]

Mariachi in Guadalajara, Jalisco

• Metre in 2/4 [chun-ta]

• Canción ranchera (a dos tiempos)
• Corrido (a dos tiempos)
• "Polka"
• Pasodoble
• Marcha

• Metre in 3/4 [chun-ta-ta]

• Canción ranchera (tres tiempos)
• Corrido (tres tiempos)
• Valses mexicanos
• Son Jaliscience
• Huapango

• Metre in 4/4 [2 bars = chun-ta-chun-ta / chun-ta-ta-ta]

• Bolero ranchero
• Danzón
• Ranchera Lenta
• Cumbia

• Metre in 6/8

• Son Jaliscience
• Jarabe
• Huapango

• Metre mixed

Examples:

• "Muerte de un gallero" (corrido-son)
• "El Charro Mexicano" (ranchera-son)

• Classical music obertures

Mariachis and artists[link]

Mariachi singing

• José Alfredo Jiménez
• Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán
• Jorge Negrete
• Pedro Infante
• Vicente Fernández
• Antonio Aguilar
• Pepe Aguilar
• Pedro Fernández
• Alejandro Fernández
• Ana Gabriel
• Chayito Valdez
• Miguel Aceves Mejía
• Tito Guízar
• Shaila Dúrcal
• Los Caballeros
• Mariachi Sol de Mexico
• Juan Gabriel
• Rocío Dúrcal

References[link]

1. ^ mariachi - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mariachi

• Mexican Music Bands, including Mariachi History

José Antonio Domínguez Banderas (born 10 August 1960), better known as Antonio Banderas, is a Spanish film actor, film director, film producer and singer. He began his acting career at age 19 with a series of films by director Pedro Almodóvar and then appeared in high-profile Hollywood films, especially in the 1990s, including Assassins, Evita, Interview with the Vampire, Philadelphia, Desperado, The Mask of Zorro, Spy Kids, the Shrek sequels and Puss in Boots.

Early life[link]

Banderas was born in Málaga, Andalucía, Spain, in 1960, to Ana Banderas, a school teacher, and José Domínguez, a police officer in the Guardia Civil.^[1][2] He has a younger brother, Javier. Although the family name is Domínguez, he took his mother's surname as his stage name.^[3] As a child, he wanted to become a professional football player until a broken foot sidelined his dreams at the age of fifteen. He went on to enroll in some drama classes, eventually joining a theater troupe that toured all over Spain. His work in the theater, and his performances on the streets, eventually landed him a spot with the National Theatre of Spain.^[4]

Career[link]

Early work, 1982–90[link]

His acting career began at the age of 19,^{[citation needed]} when he worked in small theatres during Spain’s post-dictatorial cultural movement known as the 'Movida'.^[5] While performing with the theatre, Banderas caught the attention of Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, who cast the young actor in his 1982 film debut, Labyrinth of Passion. Five years later he went on to appear in the director's Law of Desire, making headlines with his performance as a gay man, which required him to engage in his first male-to-male onscreen kiss. After Banderas appeared in Almodóvar's 1986 Matador, the director cast him in his internationally acclaimed 1988 film, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. The recognition Banderas gained for his role increased two years later when he starred in Almodóvar's controversial Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! as a mental patient who kidnaps a porn star (Victoria Abril) and keeps her tied up until she returns his love.^[4] It was his breakthrough role in Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, that helped spur him on to Hollywood.^[6] Banderas' having become a regular feature of Almodóvar's movies all throughout the 1980s, Almodóvar is credited for helping launch Banderas's international career.^[7]

Breakthrough, 1991–94[link]

In 1991 Madonna introduced Banderas to Hollywood in the documentary film Madonna: Truth or Dare. In the film, Madonna says she wants to seduce Banderas even though she knows he was married.

The following year, still speaking minimal English, he began acting in U.S. films. Despite having to learn all his lines phonetically, Banderas still managed to turn in a critically praised performance as a struggling musician in his first American drama film, The Mambo Kings (1992).

Banderas then broke through to mainstream American audiences in the film, Philadelphia (1993), as the gay lover of AIDS-afflicted lawyer Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks). The film's success earned Banderas wide recognition, and the following year was given a role in Neil Jordan's high-profile adaptation of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, which allowed him to share the screen with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.^[4]

Worldwide recognition, 1995–present[link]

He appeared in several major Hollywood releases in 1995, including a starring role in the Robert Rodriguez-directed film Desperado and the antagonist on the action film Assassins, co-starred with Sylvester Stallone. In 1996, he starred alongside Madonna in Evita, an adaptation of the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and in Tim Rice in which he played the narrator, Che, a role played by David Essex in the original 1978 West End production. He also made success with his role as the legendary masked swordsman Zorro in the 1998 film The Mask of Zorro.

In 2001, he collaborated with Robert Rodriguez who cast him in the Spy Kids film trilogy. He also starred in Michael Cristofer's Original Sin alongside Angelina Jolie the same year. In 2002, he starred in Brian De Palma's Femme Fatale opposite Rebecca Romijn-Stamos and in Julie Taymor's Frida with Salma Hayek. In 2003, he starred in the last installment of the trilogy Once Upon A Time In Mexico (in which he appeared with Johnny Depp and Salma Hayek). Banderas' debut as a director was the poorly-received Crazy in Alabama (1999), starring his wife Melanie Griffith.^[8]

In 2003, he returned to the musical genre, appearing to great acclaim in the Broadway revival of Maury Yeston's musical Nine, based on the film 8½, playing the prime role originated by the late Raúl Juliá. Banderas won both the Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk awards, and was nominated for the Tony Award for best actor in a musical.^[9] His performance is preserved on the Broadway cast recording released by PS Classics. The following year (2004), he received the Rita Moreno HOLA Award for Excellence from the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors (HOLA).

Banderas in June 2007

His voice role as Puss in Boots in Shrek 2, Shrek the Third and the last film in the Shrek franchise, Shrek Forever After, helped make the character popular on the family film circuit. In 2005, he reprised his role as Zorro in The Legend of Zorro, though this was not as successful as The Mask of Zorro. In 2006, he starred in Take the Lead, a high-set movie in which he played a ballroom dancing teacher. That year, he directed his second film El camino de los ingleses (English title: Summer Rain), and also received the L.A. Latino International Film Festival's "Gabi" Lifetime Achievement Award on 14 October.^[10] He hosted the 600th episode of Saturday Night Live (during season 31).

He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 6801 Hollywood Blvd. in 2005.

In 2011, the horror thriller The Skin I Live In marked the return of Banderas to Pedro Almodóvar, the Spanish director who launched his international career. The two had not worked together since 1990 (Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!). In The Skin I Live In he breaks out of the "Latin Lover" mold from his Hollywood work and stars as a calculating revenge-seeking plastic surgeon following the rape of his daughter. According to the Associated Press Banderas' performance is among his strongest in recent memory.^[7] He again lent his voice to Puss in Boots, this time as the protagonist of the Shrek spin-off family film, Puss in Boots. This film reunited Banderas with Salma Hayek for the sixth time.^[11]

Business activities[link]

He has invested some of his film earnings in Andalusian products, which he promotes in Spain and the US.^[12] He owns 50% of a winery in Villalba de Duero, Burgos, Spain, called Anta Banderas, which produces red and rosé wines.^[13]

He performed a voice-over for a computer-animated bee which can be seen in the United States in television commercials for Nasonex,^[14] an allergy medication, and was seen in the 2007 Christmas advertising campaign for Marks & Spencer, a British retailer.^[15]

He is a veteran of the perfume industry. The actor has been working with fragrance and beauty multinational company Puig for over ten years becoming one of the brand's most successful representatives. Banderas and Puig have successfully promoted a number of fragrances so far – Diavolo, Diavolo for Women, Mediterraneo, Spirit, and Spirit for Women. After the success of Antonio for Men and Blue Seduction for Men in 2007, launched his latest Blue Seduction for Women the following year.^[16]

Personal life[link]

Banderas with Melanie Griffith at the Shrek Forever After premiere.

Banderas divorced his first wife, Ana Leza, and on 14 May 1996, married American actress Melanie Griffith in a private, low-key ceremony in London.^[5][17] They had met a year earlier while shooting Two Much.^[18] Both Griffith and Banderas were married to other people when they first met.^[5] They have a daughter, Stella Banderas, who appeared with her parents in the 1999 film Crazy in Alabama, in which Griffith starred and which Banderas directed.^[12] In 2002, the couple's dedication to philanthropy was recognized when they received the 'Stella Adler Angel Award' for their extensive charity work.^[5]

In 1996, Banderas appeared among other figures of Spanish culture in a video supporting the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party lists in the general election.^[19]

He is a long time supporter of the Málaga CF.^[20]

He is an officer (mayordomo de trono) of a Roman Catholic religious brotherhood in Málaga and travels, with his wife and daughter, during Holy Week to take part in the processions,^[21] although in an interview with People magazine Banderas had once described himself as an agnostic.^[22] In May 2010, Banderas received his honorary doctorate from the University of Málaga in the city where he was born.^[6]

Filmography[link]

Actor[link]

Director and producer[link]

Theater[link]

See also[link]

• List of celebrities who own wineries and vineyards

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Antonio Banderas

• Antonio Banderas appointed Goodwill Ambassador at Bay Ledger
• Antonio Banderas at the Internet Movie Database
• Antonio Banderas at the TCM Movie Database
• Antonio Banderas at the Internet Broadway Database
• Antonio Banderas at Emmys.com

Seongha Jeong (정성하) (colloquially: Sungha Jung) (born 2 September 1996) is a South Korean professional acoustic finger-style guitarist who has risen to fame on YouTube and other sites. As of 2012, his channel had over 17 million views, with his videos getting a total of over 454 million views, and also over 726,000 subscribers.^[1]

Seongha typically takes three days to learn and practice a new piece, and video-record it for upload onto YouTube.^[2] His genre selection is rather broad, as he learns and plays many pieces that are playable on guitar, therefore consequently spread across numerous genres.

Seongha has won 13 awards on YouTube, including 6 "#1" awards. Also on YouTube, Seongha has 523 videos with over one million views. Seongha's video with the most views is the one which shows him playing the theme from "Pirates Of The Caribbean".

In 2010, he was featured on Narsha's solo album "Narsha" for the song "I'm in Love" Seongha has composed 18 pieces as of February 2011, two of which are featured in his debut album, "Perfect Blue". He released his second album, "Irony", on 21 September 2011.

In 2011, he performed in the US with Trace Bundy, as well as touring in Scandinavia and Japan.^[1]

See also[link]

• Yuto Miyazawa, Seongha's Japanese electric guitar-playing counterpart
• Trace Bundy, Fellow acoustic guitarist with whom Seongha collaborates
• Ulli Bögershausen, Fellow acoustic guitarist who helped him get his sponsorship with Lakewood Guitars

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website

El Mariachi is a 1992 American action film that is the debut of writer/director Robert Rodriguez. The Spanish language film was shot in the northern Mexican bordertown of Ciudad Acuña with a mainly amateur cast. The US$7,000 production was originally intended for the Mexican home video market, but executives at Columbia Pictures liked the film so much that they bought the American distribution rights. Columbia eventually spent several times more than the 16 mm film's original budget on 35 mm transfers, promotion, marketing and distribution.^[3]

The success of Rodriguez's directorial debut led him to create two further entries, Desperado (1995) and Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003), in what came to be known as the Mexico Trilogy. In 2011, the film was inducted into the Library of Congress to be preserved as part of its National Film Registry for being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

Plot[link]

In a small Mexican town, a ruthless criminal, nicknamed Azul (Reinol Martínez), breaks out of jail and vows revenge on the local drug lord, Moco (Peter Marquardt), who put him there in the first place, by using a guitar case which carries a small arsenal of guns. At the same time, a young mariachi (Carlos Gallardo) arrives in the town looking for work, carrying his guitar case with his signature guitar.

From the confines of his heavily guarded villa on the outskirts of town, Moco sends a large group of hitmen to kill Azul, but because both men are dressed in black and carrying guitar cases, the hitmen mistake the mariachi for the criminal. Only Moco knows what Azul looks like. The mariachi kills four of Moco's men in self-defense. As the mariachi seeks refuge in a bar owned by a woman named Dominó (Consuelo Gómez), he falls in love with her. Unfortunately, her bar is financed by Moco.

When Azul visits the bar for a beer and information about Moco, he accidentally leaves with the mariachi's guitar case. Moco's thugs capture Azul on the street but let him go when they learn that the case he is carrying contains only a guitar. A short time later, the mariachi is captured and taken to Moco, who identifies him as the wrong man and sets him free.

Meanwhile, Azul, who has no directions to Moco's home, takes Dominó with him and orders her to take him to Moco's, or Moco will kill the mariachi. Dominó agrees in order to save the mariachi's life. When they arrive at Moco's gated compound, Azul pretends to take Dominó hostage in order to gain entry. Moco soon realizes that Dominó has fallen for the mariachi and, in a rage, shoots both her and Azul. Suddenly, the mariachi arrives to find the woman he loves gunned down. Moco then shoots the mariachi's left hand, rendering him useless as a guitar player. However, overcome with grief and rage, the mariachi picks up Azul's gun and kills Moco, taking revenge for Dominó's death. Moco's surviving henchmen, seeing their leader dead, walk off and leave Moco's body and the wounded mariachi behind.

In the final scene, the mariachi leaves the town on Dominó's motorbike, taking her dog and her letter-opener to remember her by. His dreams to become a mariachi have been shattered, and his only protection for his future are the weapons of Azul, which he took along in the guitar case.

Cast[link]

• Carlos Gallardo as El Mariachi
• Consuelo Gómez as Dominó
• Peter Marquardt as Moco
• Reinol Martínez as Azul
• Jaime de Hoyos as Bigotón
• Ramiro Gómez as Waiter
• Jesús López Viejo as Clerk
• Luis Baro as Dominó's Assistant
• Óscar Fabila as The Boy

Production[link]

The film was shot in numerous locations in Acuña, Coahuila, located in Northeastern Mexico. Rodriguez had a $7,000 budget, almost half of which he raised by participating in experimental clinical drug testing while living in Austin,Texas.^[4] The opening scenes feature a shootout in a jail. It was the local Acuña jail situated on the outskirts of the town.^[5] Also, both the female warden and the male guard were both the real-life warden and guard; Rodriguez thought it convenient because it saved him the cost of hiring actors and renting clothing.^[5] The intro bar scene was shot inside the Corona Club, and exterior street scenes were shot on Hidalgo Street. The shoot out was filmed outside at "Boy's Town" the local red-light district.

Not everyone in Acuña was pleased at first: local journalists Ramiro Gómez and Jesús López Viejo were especially critical of the filming, and to win them over, Rodriguez gave them small parts in the film.^[6] Due to the high body count of the film (i.e. people whose characters had been shot could obviously not return), Rodriguez increasingly had difficulties finding adult men to play thugs; for that reason, when the Mariachi meets Moco's gang in the end scene, the gang consists mainly of teenagers.^[5]

On the El Mariachi DVD, Rodriguez devotes both a DVD commentary and an "Extras" section to explaining the tricks of filming a feature-length movie with just $7,000. Rodriguez heavily stresses the need for cost cutting, "because if you start to spend, you cannot stop anymore."^[6] This is why he cut costs at every possible opportunity, such as not using a slate (instead, the actors signaled the number of scene and number of take with their fingers), not using a dolly (he held the camera while being pushed around in a wheelchair), not using on set sound recording equipment (the film was instead shot silent with audio dubbed in post production), not using professional lighting (essentially using two 200-watt clip-on desk lamps) and not hiring a film crew (the actors not used in the scenes helped out).^[6] Also, Rodriguez believed in filming scenes sequentially in one long take with just one camera: every few seconds, he froze the action, so he could change the camera angle and make the audience believe he had a couple of cameras at the same time.^[5] Also, bloopers were kept in to save film: noted by Rodriguez were scenes when the Mariachi jumps on a bus, where Rodriguez is visible; the Mariachi bumping his weapon into a street pole; him failing to throw his guitar case on a balcony and Dominó twitching her face when she is already dead.^[6] Rodriguez spared expense by shooting on 16mm film as opposed to 35mm, and transferring the film to video for editing, avoiding the costs of cutting on film.^[6] In the end, he used only 24 rolls of film^[6] and only spent $7,225 of the $9,000 he had planned.^[4]

Rodriguez also gave insight into his low budget approach to simulate machine gun fire. The problem was that when using real guns, as opposed to the specially designed blank firing firearms used in most films, the blanks would jam the weapon after being fired once. To solve this, Rodriguez filmed the firing of one blank from different angles, dubbed canned machine gun sounds over it, and had the actors drop bullet shells to the ground to make it look like as if multiple rounds had been shot.^[6] In addition, he occasionally used water guns instead of real guns to save money.^[6] Rodriguez also describes that the squibs they used in shootout scenes were simply condoms filled with fake blood fixed over weightlifting belts.^[5]

Rodriguez also noted the use of improvisation. The tortoise which crawls in front of the Mariachi was not planned, but was kept as a good idea.^[5] Similarly, there is a scene in which the Mariachi buys a coconut, but Rodriguez forgot to show him paying for the fruit; instead of driving back to the place to shoot additional scenes, Rodriguez decided to build in a voice-over in which the Mariachi asserts that the coconuts were for free.^[5] Improvisation was also useful to cover up continuity mistakes: at the end of the movie, the Mariachi has his left hand shot, but Rodriguez forgot to bring the metal glove to cover up the actor's hand; he solved it by packing his hand with black duct tape.^[6]

In the DVD commentary, Rodriguez describes the acting of Peter Marquardt (who portrayed gangster boss ”Moco”). As the language of the film was Spanish, which Marquardt did not master, he had to learn his lines without understanding what he was saying.^[5] The running gag, in which Moco lights up his match using the moustache of his henchman Bigotón, was described by Rodriguez as a means to start and end the film: the end scene is a parody of this scene. Also, Marquardt suffered some physical discomfort in the final shooting scene. When Moco is hit in the chest, his blood squib exploded with such force that he really crumpled to the ground in pain.^[5]

Originally, the film was meant to be sold on the Latino video market as funding for another bigger and better project that Rodriguez was contemplating. However, after being rejected from various Latino straight-to-video distributors, Rodriguez decided to send his film (it was in the format of a trailer at the time) to bigger distribution companies where it started to get attention.

Music[link]

For the scene in which the Mariachi delivers a song in front of Dominó, Rodriguez hired a local exterminator. Recording the song with little more than a microphone held next to the musician, Rodriguez pitched the voice to match the voice of Mariachi actor Carlos Gallardo.^[6]

Book[link]

The story of the film's production inspired Rodriguez to write the book Rebel Without a Crew: Or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker With $7,000 Became a Hollywood Player.

Awards[link]

El Mariachi won multiple international awards, and writer/producer/director Rodriguez went on to gain international fame, being interviewed on such shows as Sábado Gigante, and going on to make more Hollywood-backed films such as The Faculty and Sin City. In December 2011, El Mariachi was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.^[7] Citing it as the film that "helped usher in the independent movie boom of the early 1990s", the Registry gave special mention to director Robert Rodriguez and his ability to merge two separate genres of films—"the narcotraficante film, a Mexican police genre, and the transnational warrior-action film, itself rooted in Hollywood Westerns"—successfully "despite the constraints of a shoestring budget."^[8]

References[link]

Further reading

• Rodriguez, Robert. Rebel Without a Crew: Or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker With $7,000 Became a Hollywood Player. Dutton Signet. ISBN 0-452-27187-8. 

External links[link]

	Book: Mexico Trilogy
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

• El Mariachi at the Internet Movie Database
• El Mariachi at AllRovi
• El Mariachi at Box Office Mojo
• El Mariachi at Rotten Tomatoes
• El Mariachi at Metacritic