Arcoiris gay
Pride month is all about celebrating Queer trailblazers — from past and show — helping further representation for the queer community. Those who have and are currently pushing boundaries and organism queer while doing so. One band, Mariachi Arcoiris de Los Angeles, is doing just that. They are the first and only all-LGBTQ+ mariachi band and are arrange to play in a performance line-up filled with other queer Latine talent.
For centuries, the melody genre has been dominated by cisgender straight men who sang to grab the ears of the women they were interested in. Mariachi Arcoiris is turning that notion on its brain. In an interview with KCRW of the Greater Los Angeles area, Carlos Samaniego, who is at the helm of the community, said, “Unfortunately, entity openly gay [was] a no-no in this culture [and] in this group. And so nowadays, it’s better, but when I was younger, it definitely was something that I struggled with.”
One of its members, Natalia Melendez, is a transgender girl. She spoke about her experiences as a trans female in the mariachi space in a two-part special for Univision News. Recently, they’ve performed on Univision’s morning demonstrate , Pride celebrations in Los An
JoséAlfredo’sbeloved mariachi song, “Ella,” begins with a hearty lamentation: “Me canse de rogarle,” or, in English, “I’m tired of begging her.” It goes on, in Spanish, “I’m tired of telling her that without her, I’ll perish of sadness.”
In the tune, the female object of craving responds only to tell him that she is no longer in love. The man cries and guzzles tequila to soothe his heartbreak.
Like many mariachi songs, “Ella” is filled with both melancholy and humor and pregnant with cishet male angst accompanied by an inescapable tinge of entitlement. The song centers on the feelings of a man frustrated by the reality that he’s making an try for a woman he believes owes him love simply because he loves her.
In the Mariachi Arcoiris, an L.A.-based team and the world’s first all-LGBTQ+ mariachi band, it’s always a woman who sings “Ella.” When a queer woman sings it, the tone takes on modern depth. Now, the singer’s passion could be unrequited for a whole set of different reasons. It’s one of the ways that Mariachi Arcoiris subverts a centuries-old genre that’s been traditionally sexist and homophobic, welcoming in those for whom mariachi song was not made.
Mariachi
Meet the man who created the world's first LGBTQ Mariachi band Mariachi Arcoiris
LOS ANGELES, California -- Mariachi music is one of Mexico's most beloved forms of music. It's also among the most traditional. After coming out as a gay man, Carlos Samaniego found that he was not welcome in many Mariachi groups. So he decided to buck tradition and form his own-Mariachi Arcoiris de Los Angeles, the world's first LGBTQ Mariachi group.
"I decided to create Mariachi Arcoiris so that other musicians like myself, within the LGBTQ community, can approach together and perform Mariachi music in a sheltered place," said Carlos Samaniego, founder of Mariachi Arcoiris.
"I come from a family full of musicians," said Natalia Melendez, one of the groups original members and the first gender nonconforming female in a Mariachi group. "I fell in love with it at the age of 7. And at the age of 8, I started playing violin."
"At a very young age, I knew I was different. I knew I was a female stuck in a male body. I wanted to be like my other friends who were females playing in Mariachis, and I couldn't undertake that," said Melendez.
"It's expand
With Mariachis Arcoiris, an 18th-Century Mexican Art Form Evolves into a Symbol of Pride
Director Carlos Samaniego leads the first LGBTQ+ mariachi team in the U.S.
In the early 2000s, Carlos Samaniego was a student at Cal State Los Angeles, a college campus just outside of downtown LA with a big Latinx population. While there, he drew an esteemed organization of musicians to an original concept: A group of queer Latinx students would stage a mock gay Mexican wedding during Celebration Month, at a time when homosexual marriage was still a topic of debate. From that experiment, Carlos, a trainee of mariachi since he was a young boy, came up with the idea of creating an all-LGBTQ+ mariachi band. It was immediately successful, and the band was quickly hired for some local club work. But the demands of learner life and demonstrating at that level took a toll, and the community eventually took a long break.
Ten years later, in 2013, Carlos revisited the idea, recognizing the impact a community of its gentle could make on both the Queer and Latinx communities. He decided it was time to revive Mariachis Arcoiris, and the band gave its first performance on Valentine’s Day 2014. Next year, they will celebra