Mexico’s women mariachis defy macho culture

With her hair tied back, large hoop earrings and high heels, Isabel Aguilar stood confidently in front of her five fellow mariachi musicians, all men, and sang to a mostly male crowd in a Mexico City square.
Aguilar, a violinist, is among the few female musicians in Plaza Garibaldi, a tourist spot famous for its roving mariachi bands and crowded restaurants.
For the past 16 years, the 32-year-old mother-of-two has defied the quintessentially macho culture of mariachi music, the disdain of many of her peers and even the disapproval of her father, who was himself a mariachi musician.
“He would say that women should stay at home,” Aguilar said of her father.
There are around 20 women among the 2,000 buskers registered with Plaza Garibaldi’s Mexican Mariachi Union.
Mariachi is a style of folk music involving mostly stringed instruments and traditionally played by an all-male ensemble.
Although not all male mariachi musicians look down on their female peers, several women mariachis say they have to battle to earn the respect of their colleagues.
Aguilar is one of the few female musicians to raise her voice against female discrimination.
“The hardest thing is this prevailing macho man culture in Mexico,” declared the musician, who said she was engaged in a “silent battle” with her female colleagues.
“Men still carry around this idea of machismo. It’s a culture that we haven’t been able to get rid of.”
Aguilar is not the first woman to sing her way into a man’s world.
In the 1950s, trailblazing women broke the mold and formed the first all-female mariachi groups in Mexico.
Lupita Villa, an 80-year-old singer and guitar player, preciously keeps black and white photos of her band, “Las Coronelas,” who filled theaters across Mexico and gained worldwide acclaim on international tours.
“We were surrounded by applause and praise for being women,” said Villa, who plied her trade during the so-called golden era of mariachi music, competing with both male bands and other female groups like the “Estrellas de Mexico.”
Back then, the women in the group could be more committed to the band, she recalled.
A new mariachi school that opened near Plaza Garibaldi in October could attract more women to the world of mariachi music, Villa said, lamenting that all-female bands no longer exist in the capital.
Eleven of the 85 students are women and most, like Maria Teresa Gabriel, say the school will “prepare women well” to face any challenge they may meet after they complete the three-year program.
“How great would it be if more women come out and have the good fortune that we did to lift Mexico’s name high?” Villa said.