A homesick Texan started a mariachi band 211 miles from the next one

Diego Quintanilla, a Mexican American Tandon student, moved from Texas to New York and promptly felt homesick for his culture. He has played in mariachis since he was six, and comes from three generations of mariachi players. Checking for a college band nearby, he found the closest one was about 211 miles away, near Harvard.

So he built one. In his first year he researched NYU professors of Latin American descent, wrote to Carlos Chirinos, an assistant professor who directs the Music and Social Change Lab, and used his help to email Steinhardt students. He then watched audition tapes, directed rehearsals and taught newcomers how mariachi works. Mariachi Violetas began with nine members and now has around 20. It has represented NYU at Carnegie Hall and at events for the Mexican Student Association and Latinos Unidos Con Honor Y Amistad.

there’s no fear in my body, there’s no doubt in my soul

Diego Quintanilla, to Washington Square News

The group is also an argument with a stereotype. Quintanilla says mariachi players no longer want to be pictured as a large man under a cactus with a bottle of tequila. Mariachi began among farmers in the Jalisco region of Mexico and became a symbol of pride during the Chicano civil rights movement, which, the student paper notes, gives it new weight today.

CAS junior Erik Arellano, from Chicago, joined last year after a high school where his Mexican identity felt suppressed; the group lets him feel proud, he says. Quintanilla, close to graduating, has stepped down as director but remains a member. His welcome is open to anyone who likes the music, whatever their Spanish. Samuel Wu, profiled earlier in this issue, was also a founding member.