El Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán

Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan, a longstanding Mexican ensemble, originated in 1898 in Tecalitlan through the initiative of Gaspar Vargas, Manuel Mendoza, and two violinists. In December 1934 the group traveled to Mexico City to attend the inauguration of President Lazaro Cardenas and subsequently functioned as the city's official Mariachi band. Three years afterward, Mariachi Vargas made its screen debut in Asi Es Mi Tierra, the first of nearly two hundred motion pictures, and released its initial recording. Across the following thirty-five years the musicians issued dozens of albums encompassing pasodobles, valses, bailables, polkas, and danzones.

Jose Alfredo Jimenez, one of the greatest composer/vocalists of ranchera music and a frequent contributor, died in 1973, closing an era. The band nevertheless sustained its evolution by supporting vocalist and composer Juan Gabriel on his earliest recordings and by introducing new and significant forms of expression in Mariachi music. Pepe Martinez assumed musical direction in 1976. Martinez' compositions reveal mastery of rhythms and original arrangements that present every musician in the group as a soloist, rendering the period surrounding the centennial anniversary one of the ensemble's strongest phases.