A Cuban With A Mexican Soul: How An LA Cubana Became A Mariachi Godmother

L.A.’s venerated Mariachi USA music festival comes to the Hollywood Bowl this Saturday, as it has since 1990.

Rodri Rodriguez

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Courtesy of Mariachi USA

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The festival was founded by longtime Los Angeles music and concert producer Rodri Rodriguez, who came to the U.S. as an immigrant, but not from Mexico — from Cuba. Since her teens, she has lived in Los Angeles where, amid the city’s vibrant Mexicanidad, she fell in love with traditional Mexican music and developed what she calls “mariachi DNA.”

Rodriguez shares with LAist what drew her to mariachi music, why a Cubana chose to promote this quintessentially Mexican art form, and why she sees Los Angeles as “an arroz con pollo where we all respect each other's recipes” — a place where Latinidad finds common ground.

Let’s start with your immigrant story. How did you make it from Cuba to L.A.?

Rodriguez: In 1962 I arrived in Miami, via Operation Pedro Pan. I had just turned 7. I was in a refugee camp for a few months. I landed in a foster home in Albuquerque for seven years, until my parents were able to come out of Cuba.

They were in Miami for a couple of months, then came to Los Angeles where I reunited with them, and (I’ve) been here ever since.

Where did you discover traditional Mexican music?

Rodriguez: Albuquerque, New Mexico. From 7 to 14, I heard (and) I was familiar with the music there.

And then, when I came to Los Angeles, that's all you heard. And you well know this, that you just immerse yourself into whatever is here, because that is what is here.

How did you start your music industry career?

Rodriguez: Fresh out of high school, I didn't have the great grades. I had the smarts, but not the grades to get scholarships. My parents couldn't afford college. So I immediately began working, and ended up at Latin International, which was the hub of Latin music here in Los Angeles.

Pepe Garcia owned Latin International, (he was) Cubano. He also owned Musica Latina, which was a very popular and the only (Latin) music store in Los Angeles. I trained with them, everything I know — well, everything I knew then, I've learned a lot more since then. But I learned everything I could from them having to do with record production.

The record company produced the first few mariachi albums in Los Angeles for Pedro Rey y Los Galleros, Nati Cano y Los Camperos. And there we go. I'm in the midst of mariachi, which I just absolutely loved.

And they produced an annual concert called El Disco de Oro, which was a reason to promote and to honor the artists that were on our record label at the time, and that's where I began to learn concert production.

Musicians perform during a past Mariachi USA festival at the Hollywood Bowl.

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Courtesy of Mariachi USA

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You started Mariachi USA at the Hollywood Bowl in 1990. What made you want to promote mariachi music with a festival?

Rodriguez: For me, it was world-class music that was not seen as world-class. They were still seeing mariachi as chamberos, you know, that you just pick them up in the corner and pay them $20 to go and play at a backyard party. And to me, it was so much more than that. I honored the music, and I wanted to put it on a world-class stage, and the only stage I could think of was the Hollywood Bowl.

As you’ve mentioned, demand for the first show was greater than anticipated, and it sold out, right?

Rodriguez: I cried like a baby before I went on stage that day, because I actually went down to the plaza area and (talked) with people, they didn't know who I was. I said, “There's no tickets, why are you here?” I needed to know myself. I needed to hear from their voices and their hearts.

They said, “No nos vamos de aquí, esto es histórico. No nos importa que no vamos a ver nada. Queremos escuchar y vamos a cantar desde acá afuera.” (“We’re not leaving, this is historic. We want to listen and we’re going to sing from out here.")

That to me was just so moving, and I knew.

Can you describe the validation that fans back then must have felt to see mariachi musicians headlining the Hollywood Bowl? 

Rodriguez: Because they knew of the Hollywood Bowl as being the home of the Philharmonic. It was, in their eyes, elitist in the sense that they had never attended. And that such a venue was going to be open to them, or a mariachi festival …

…they wanted to be there for this. I knew that it was going to be great, but the emotion that accompanied it that first day really … my heart exploded.

Dancers perform onstage at the Hollywood Bowl during a past Mariachi USA festival.

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Courtesy of Mariachi USA

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It has continued because now those that I entertain are the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren of those that started out in 1990. The euphoria is the same, the sentiment is the same, but now we're looking at five generations deep.

I’ve mentioned that I grew up as a Cubana in Southeast L.A. Mariachi music holds a special place in my heart. What is it about mariachi music that speaks to you? 

Rodriguez: First of all, it's the dramatic, intense storytelling that occurs in each given song. And then, when you look at the composition of the instrumentation … those instruments are played like in no other genre. The combination of instrumentation, that, plus the voices … they train their voices, very similar to opera training, because you don't use a microphone.

Then it's la musica, you know. It's a combination of el romance, la alegría, la tristeza, la nostalgia. Together with that instrumentation, it’s like, explosive to me.

If you know “Volver, Volver,” you have mariachi DNA. And you don't have to be Mexicana, you and I are living proof of it.

I'm a Cuban with a Mexican soul. I have mariachi DNA and I've had it for a long time. I chose that, to just crawl into my DNA, and it's there. It ain't going anywhere.

Performers onstage at the Hollywood Bowl during a past Mariachi USA festival.

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Courtesy of Mariachi USA

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This is one of those things that happens in Los Angeles, right? What do you think is that L.A. secret sauce which allows for this kind of cultural cross-pollination, and for Latinidad to find common ground here? 

Rodriguez: It’s like when you do an arroz con pollo, que le pones un piringuín de esto y un poquito del otro (you add a dash of this, a little of that). We basically have an arroz con pollo where we all respect each other's recipes.

All of us have embraced each other because, you know, there's a saying that says we may all have come on different ships, we’re in the same boat now. But we've grown beyond that. We are a community of embracing.

It's beyond acceptance. We’re not reaching to be accepted, or even recognized, anymore. We just are. It’s interesting you say cross-pollination because that's the term that I use, but that's what we have at Mariachi USA. It's that cross-pollination of what Los Angeles is and what Los Angeles offers.