The Brief

From its start over 200 years ago in central Mexico to the late 20th century, the mariachi genre was traditionally dominated by all-male groups.

Until Rebecca Gonzales helped bust open the door.

“It was very difficult for me in the very beginning,” Gonzales said in a recorded interview now available as part of UCLA's oral history project, Mariachi Music in Los Angeles and beyond. “I felt like all the eyes were on me."

All eyes were on her.

As the sole woman in the leading mariachi group Los Camperos de Nati Cano, the house band at famed La Fonda restaurant in the 1970s, and one of a handful of women in the scene at all, she was a rarity. Gonzales was not the first woman to play music in the genre, but she was the first to be asked to join such a high profile all-male mariachi in either the U.S. or Mexico.

A third generation American integrates a very Mexican genre

Rebecca Gonzales was born in 1953 in San Jose, California. Her mother was born in Arizona and her father in Texas. Her grandparents immigrated from Mexico.

“I never learned Spanish… I started taking Spanish at a community college,” she said.

She started playing violin at 10 years-old and would practice at home with her younger sister.

Rebecca Gonzales, center, joined Los Abajenos de Isidro Rivera before joining Los Camperos de Nati Cano in L.A.

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Rebecca Gonzales collection, courtesy Mary Alvaro Velasco.

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“I was an average student. I mean, the only thing I was really good at was music,” she said.

And she was painfully shy, she said. But that all changed when she was 16 and had her first boyfriend.

“He was a musician, so we had that in common, and we would go to concerts all the time. And back then, there was fantastic concerts going on at the Fillmore in San Francisco, where he was, an hour drive from my house,” Gonzales said. That's where she saw Carlos Santana, Jethro Tull and other late 60s rock stars.

Those experiences fed her love of many musical genres, but her music studies still focused on classical violin.

Mariachi wasn’t part of her cultural upbringing. Her father liked and played norteño, the accordion-focused music played by small musical groups on either side of the U.S.-Mexico border.

But when she signed up for a mariachi class at San Jose City College after graduating high school, it was a revelation. The joy and smiles on the faces of the students in that class were contagious, a far cry from the serious face she made, she said, when playing classical music.

“I'll never forget coming home to let my father know that night. I said, 'You know what? This music is really great… I think this is going to be a big part of my life,'" Gonzales said.

She began playing and singing in local Mariachi bands. But that wasn't enough to leave classical music just yet. She transferred to Cal State L.A. and Cal State Northridge to continue studying classical music.

Her big break in L.A.

Mariachi’s pull, however, continued in L.A. The leader of a local mariachi ensemble asked her to join and she jumped at the chance. She also visited La Fonda, to hear what was arguably the best mariachi group outside Mexico at that time, Los Camperos de Nati Cano, the house band at the club on Wilshire Blvd.

Rebecca Gonzales, front-left, was the first woman to join an established all-male mariachi in 1976 in either the U.S. or Mexico.

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Rebecca Gonzales collection, courtesy Mary Alfaro Velasco

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“My big break came when I… went there one night to visit, and there was my friend that I worked with in the mariachi in San Jose," who was playing for Los Camperos, she said.

The friend asked Gonzales to come up on stage. A few more impromptu performances followed, until the group's manager asked her to come back again so the founder, Nati Cano, could see her.

“He hired me that night,” she said.

Gonzales was not even 25 years old.

“That took a lot of guts. That's inspiring," said Mary Alfaro Velasco, an L.A. based bolero and mariachi performer who interviewed Gonzales for the archive. “That she went into this all-male, paisa-man environment, as a young Mexican American girl, pochita, that didn't even speak the language."

Gonzales spent eight years playing with Los Camperos, where she became a celebrity of sorts in the U.S. mariachi scene.

“A lot of movie stars used to come to La Fonda,” Gonzales said, noting actors Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Montgomery, and former Beatle George Harrison, who brought his Latina wife, Olivia.

There’s even a photo of her in a mariachi outfit dancing with President Ronald Reagan.

Rebecca Gonzales, left, dances with Ronald Reagan in a photo dated 1982, when Reagan was U.S. President.

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Rebecca Gonzales collection, courtesy Mary Alfaro Velasco

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But it was not always glamorous. Gonzales told Velasco about some of the painful parts of being the first woman in such a famous all-male mariachi band.

“I remember her describing what it was like, playing in restaurants [when she was a young woman] and literally being assaulted, men touching her,” Alfaro Velasco said.

La Fonda’s house mariachi made it a tourist destination, including visitors from Japan. The group’s leaders recognized that and included songs outside the Mexican repertoire, like Sakura, a Japanese folk song that’s become representative of Japan.

“I would sing it… and they loved it because we're connecting with their culture,” Gonzales said.

Eight years of performing at La Fonda ultimately took its toll on her health. Patrons smoked inside La Fonda because it had not been banned yet. She began feeling sick, and asked that ventilation be put in. But, she said, the managers refused.

“That was one of the things that turned me off and made me want to leave the group,” she said.

After she left the group in the mid-1980s, she joined other groups and founded her own. In 2004, she was inducted into the Tucson International Mariachi Conference Hall of Fame and in 2023 the Mariachi Spectacular de Albuquerque also inducted her into its hall of fame.

One of her aspirations was for a woman to do what she'd done in the home of mariachi music.

“I'm hoping that I live to see the day that a woman is part of one of those big groups in Mexico,” she said in the interview.

But that didn't happen. Gonzalez died last year at the age of 71, just a few years after recording the oral histories.

Meanwhile, Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan and Mariachi Sol de Mexico de Jose Hernandez, two of the biggest bands in Mexico, remain all-male.

Her story is in the historical record

With her story now in the UCLA archives, it's part of the historical record.

“[Mariachi] is such an important form… everybody who lives in L.A. hears mariachi music and nobody really knows very much about it in terms of the general public,” said Jane Collings, the project manager for the series.

The oral histories of Mexican Americans and other non-white people, she said, are very important in this day and age.

“There's a clear attempt [by the Trump administration] to erase this history and that makes the work of an archive such as this ever more important,” Collings said.

And it's the mission of the UCLA archive, she said, to keep those stories alive for current and future generations.

Hermon — Some shoppers heading into Fresco Market were lost in their phones, but when they momentarily looked up, they were greeted by a flap of brilliant green feathers and a cheery squawk. Phones were put away.

“Pepe! Hey Pepe! So good to see you!”

Perched on the shoulder of T.J. Gonzalez, Pepe the Parrot was in full greeter mode. Wide-eyed and seeming to almost smile as he surveyed the parking lot and his approaching public, Pepe did what he naturally does: make people happy.

A common sight at the Hermon market, near where they live, Gonzalez and Pepe can also be found at community centers, farmers’ markets and local events. They often take the Metro into downtown Los Angeles, Long Beach and other locations.

There’s no money asked, stressed Gonzalez, adding that Pepe simply adores the attention. “People want to see and talk with him more than me,” he joked as he cracked a nut and placed it in his mouth. On cue, the bird reached around Gonzalez’s mouth to retrieve it.

Michael Eagle-Hall of El Sereno is delighted to meet Pepe outside of the Fresco Market in Hermon.

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Brenda Rees

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The Eastsider

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A mail carrier for 37 years before he retired, Gonzalez found Pepe, a red-crowned Amazon (flocks are often seen in Northeast L.A.) in July 2021. The chick had fallen out of a nest and was flailing on a busy street in San Marino. “He was like roadkill,” said Gonzalez, who watched cars drive over (without striking) the bird.

Gonzalez retrieved the parrot and looked for help, but wildlife rehabbers said they’d euthanize the bird since it had a broken wing. Gonzalez instead brought him to a vet and christened him Pepe.

Since Pepe could not fly, Gonzalez started walking him around the neighborhood. He soon discovered how kids and adults enjoyed interacting with the parrot. Pepe is also a social media darling, with more than 8,600 followers on Instagram.

Pepe is more of a squawker than a talker, but Gonzalez has learned how to art-direct photos of people and the bird, instructing them on how to hold their hands and arms best. “We just want that smile because that’s all that Pepe wants from you,” said Gonzalez.

Crews have now recovered the bodies of all nine backcountry skiers who were killed in an avalanche in Northern California earlier this week. It marks an end to what authorities on Saturday described as an agonizing five-day search and recovery operation complicated by intense winter storms northwest of Lake Tahoe.

"While we wish we could have saved them all, we are grateful that we can bring them home," said Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon during a Saturday news conference.

Until Saturday, authorities had not confirmed the death of a ninth victim, a skier who had been missing and presumed dead. Officials say their body was found near the eight other victims that have now been recovered. Authorities said avalanche hazards and weather conditions were too dangerous most of the week to search for the remaining victim or recover the bodies.

Four of the bodies were recovered on Friday, and the rest of the bodies were recovered on Saturday, all in the Castle Peak area where the avalanche – one of the deadliest in California history — struck. Six people from the group of 15 skiers survived Tuesday's disaster, the last day of a three-day backcountry ski trip. One guide and five travelers were among the survivors.

Helicopters with the California National Guard as well as the California Highway Patrol were used to hoist the remaining bodies from the mountain, officials said at the press conference.

On Friday, officials were able to use specialized techniques with the help of Pacific Gas & Electric to reduce the avalanche risk.

The ski trip was organized by Blackbird Mountain Guides, an outdoor tour company based in Truckee, Calif. Moon confirmed the identities of the victims. Three guides were killed: Andrew Alissandratos, 34, from Verdi, Nev.; Michael Henry, 30, from Soda Springs, Calif.; and Nicole Choo, 42, of South Lake Tahoe, Calif. The other victims, who had signed up for the group trip, are: Carrie Atkin, 46, of Soda Springs; Lizabeth Clabaugh, 52, of Boise, Idaho; Danielle Keatley, 44, of Soda Springs and Larkspur, Calif.; Kate Morse, 45, of Soda Springs and Tiburon, Calif.; Caroline Sekar, 45, of Soda Springs and San Francisco; and Katherine Vitt, 43, of Greenbrae, Calif.

The Sierra Avalanche Center classified the avalanche between a D2 and D3 on the avalanche danger scale.

"A D2 would take down a person. A D3 would take down a house, so it was right in between those. It was described by them as a football field length of a path of the avalanche," Sheriff Moon said on Saturday.

Multiple agencies are investigating.

"We are investigating the incident to determine if there were any factors that would be considered criminal negligence," Ashley Quadros with the Nevada County Sheriff's Office said in an email to NPR on Sunday. "It is a standard investigation. It is too early to know if criminal charges will be applicable, as the investigation is preliminary and remains active and ongoing."

The area will be closed to visitors for several weeks.
Copyright 2026 NPR

The Transportation Security Administration said Sunday that its PreCheck program would remain operational despite an earlier announcement from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that the airport security service was being suspended during the partial government shutdown.

"As staffing constraints arise, TSA will evaluate on a case by case basis and adjust operations accordingly," the agency said.

It was not immediately clear whether Global Entry, another airport service, would be affected. PreCheck and Global Entry are designed to help speed registered travelers through security lines, and suspensions would likely cause headaches and delays.

The turmoil is tied to a partial government shutdown that began Feb. 14 after Democrats and the White House were unable to reach a deal on legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats have been demanding changes to immigration operations that are core to President Donald Trump's deportation campaign.

Homeland Security previously said it was taking "emergency measures to preserve limited funds." Among the steps listed were "ending Transportation Security Administration (TSA) PreCheck lanes and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Global Entry service, to refocus Department personnel on the majority of travelers."

Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement on Saturday night that "shutdowns have serious real world consequences."

One group of fliers will definitely be affected, according to TSA

"Courtesy escorts, such as those for Members of Congress, have been suspended to allow officers to focus on the mission of securing America's skies," the agency said.

Airlines for America, a trade group representing major carriers, said Saturday night that "it's past time for Congress to get to the table and get a deal done." It also criticized the announcement by saying it was "issued with extremely short notice to travelers, giving them little time to plan accordingly."

Democrats on the House Committee on Homeland Security criticized Homeland Security handling of airport security after the initial announcement on Saturday night. They accused the administration of "kneecapping the programs that make travel smoother and secure."

Sen. Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, said Noem's actions are part of an administration strategy to distract from other issues and shift responsibility.

"This administration is trying to weaponize our government, trying to make things intentionally more difficult for the American people as a political leverage," he told CNN on Sunday. "And the American people see that."