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Pete Luna | Leader News
Mariachi Azul, a San Antonio-based mariachi band, performs on the stage of the Rotary Amphitheater during the first-ever MariARTchi Madness event on Main Street Uvalde. The music festival and art exhibition took place on October 9th.
Uvalde native Ben Elliot won the “el grito” contest during the Main Street Uvalde MariARTchi Madness event held last weekend when professional mariachis and a variety of salespeople came together to amaze the crowd who ran the Willie De Leon Civic Center and the Rotary Amphitheater.
For those who may not know what an “el grito” is, it’s the shouting that revelers in Mexico do on Mexican Independence Day in September. It’s the same type of scream that can sometimes be heard at the beginning of a mariachi tune.
It was a noise that was heard frequently on Saturday, October 9, when four professional mariachi bands performed throughout the day.
There were vendors selling aguas frescas, horchata, and sopes, and stalls decorated in fiesta-bright reds, blues, and yellows. There were women and girls in bright festive dresses and men in guayaberas. There were folkloric dancers in beautiful, long, swirling dresses.
“It’s exciting to see people from Del Rio, Eagle Pass, Laredo, San Antonio, Premont and beyond join the Uvalde community to celebrate the art, music and culture of Mexico,” said Susan Rios, director of Main Street Uvalde program.
Robert Miguel Rodriguez from uvalderadio.net positioned his DJ studio in front of the community center and entertained dealers and audiences with a varied range of music.
There was plenty of chalk for kids to do street art and a mural with plenty of paints and markers for them and the young artists to color or paint the mural.
Pete Luna | Leader News
Under the watchful eye of his subject, Party Arty (right) puts the finishing touches to a cartoon he is working on at the Uvalde MariARTchi Madness event.
Mariachis sang traditional Jalisco-style ballads, serenades and cumbias. There was pop mariachi music.
The mariachi audience crouched in the sparse shade in the morning and enjoyed more shade in the afternoon on the concrete seats and steps along the hill of the Rotary Amphitheater and on the grass next to the steps.
The last group of the day, Mariachi Relampago, from Eagle Pass, got very close to their audience. After playing a full set, the mariachis were still full of energy. They stepped away from their microphones and stepped into the audience asking the audience to go down the hill to join them.
With a swing and a wave, the mariachis took off their sombreros, put them aside and stepped into the shadows with the audience.
“They only weigh 3 pounds,” said band leader Gerardo Lopez later of their heavily embroidered sombreros, “but in the afternoon heat they weigh about 200 pounds.” With their hats aside and their audience closer, the band visited the crowd and laughed with them like they were old friends, and they sang audience favorites.
This prompted host Sergio Ortiz, who had spent a busy day organizing bands and crowds, to dance a well-executed cumbia.
In the evening there was a heavy metal mariachi band that had a ticket and “not G-rated,” to quote Rios. It was an event with the local band Surge along with the heavy metal mariachi band Metalachi.
Rios said the all-day event was well attended and the Main Street Board is already considering next year’s event.
Pete Luna | Leader News
Dressed up for the occasion, Mayra Vasquez-Esparza from Uvalde and her daughters listen to music from a shady spot on the lawn next to the seating of the Rotary Amphitheater during Main Street Uvalde MariARTchi Madness.
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