Gypsy Jan - 9-6-2012 at 08:49 PM
From baja.com
By Carla White
"The 3rd Annual Mariachi & Folklorico spectacular, to be held October 3-7 at the Rosarito Beach Hotel, will feature the best of Mariachi music and
dance groups from Mexico and the U.S.
In addition to offering the chance to hear great mariachi music, the thousands expected to attend from both Mexican and the U.S. will know that their
ticket purchases will go toward helping build Rosarito's first Boys & Girls Club.
Two years ago, I had the opportunity to attend this amazing event and it made me realize that Mariachi is so much more than what I thought it to be.
The range of Mariachi is vast - from a single Mariachi Diva to an orchestra that can have many musicians.
And the sound can vary from a country-campestre style to energetic ranchero to an elegant loneliness that seems to penetrate the very soul.
It is clear that Mariachi, which has been at the musical heart of Mexico for decades - beginning as a regional folk style called 'Son Jaliscience' in
central Mexico, and played by musicians dressed in peasant garb, using stringed instruments - has attained not only national but international
significance.
This was demonstrated recently when the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) granted Mexican Mariachi the title
of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in a ceremony during the XIX International Mariachi Encounter held in Guadalajara, west of Mexico.
In a short service at Guadalajara's main public plaza, eight musician children between the ages of five and ten garbed in full Mariachi attire
received the award as a symbol of the future generations keeping alive this tradition, explained the Director of the National Council of Art and
Culture of Mexico, Consuelo Sáizar.
The festival at the Rosarito Beach Hotel will feature both Mariachi and folkloric ballet competitions each day, and features presentation and
educational components throughout the event period.
The activities reach a crescendo on the evening of October 6, with the Noche de Extravaganza concert.
The overall scope, color and atmosphere of this festival has become second only to that of the famous event held in Guadalajara each year.
Having attended this festival and experiencing the energy and pulse of Baja's mariachi performances, it is hard for me to imagine and more exciting
event, even in Guadalajara.
But perhaps the hallmark of this festival is the cause it supports:
the establishment of Rosarito's Boys & Girls Club, only the third such to be created in northern Mexico (Tijuana and Nogales).
Modeled upon the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, this organization strives to support the personal, cultural and educational growth of children in
need, giving them positive experiences that will shape their lives, and the communities they live in, forever."
For more information about the festival, contact Rosy Torres (044-661-850-1773).