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,
crowded restaurants and booze-fueled nightlife.
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, still trying to break the
male domination of this symbol of Mexican culture that emerged in
the 19th century.
Mariachi is a style of folk music involving mostly stringed
instruments and traditionally played by an all-male ensemble.
Some male mariachi musicians still have a hard time accepting the
presence of women like Aguilar, who performs in a long brown skirt
and the traditional embroidered "charro" jacket.
"I will refrain from commenting," said a veteran member of the
famous Mariachi Vargas band as he sat on a bench watching Aguilar
play her violin.
Women, he told a colleague, still have a "long path" before they
reach the level of men.
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, who accuse the women of evading their
domestic chores, and sometimes exclude them from gigs.
Aguilar is one of the few female musicians to raise her voice
against such 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 because they weren't married, she recalled. But once they tied
the knot, some members quit.
"Men are a bit jealous, they're a bit suspicious. Two of the girls
got married and then the mariachi band ended. The husband kept her
at home," said Villa, who never married or had children.
Villa, who still plays in a band called "Las Pioneras" with other
veteran musicians, said women can win respect by being professional
in their work.
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.
