Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán

The best mariachi in the world

Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán was founded by Gaspar Vargas in Tecalitlán, Jalisco. Spanish Wikipedia gives the traditional date as September 15, 1898, when the municipal president hired them for Independence Day, while the English article says 1896 in its text and 1897 in its infobox, which MusicBrainz and AllMusic follow. The original line-up had Vargas on guitarra de golpe, Manuel Mendoza on the wooden harp and Lino Quintero and Refugio Hernández on violins. Silvestre Vargas, Gaspar's son, joined as violinist in 1921 and took over direction in 1931. They won a contest in Guadalajara in 1933 and in Mexico City in 1934, then settled in Mexico City, and their first recordings and a film debut, Así es mi tierra, came in 1937. The trumpeter Miguel Martínez joined in 1941, establishing the mariachi trumpet.

The violinist and arranger Rubén Fuentes joined in 1944; born on February 15, 1926 in Ciudad Guzmán, he died on February 5, 2022 aged 95. He suggested the name El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo in 1956, according to Spanish Wikipedia, and became their artistic director for RCA Victor. Albums from RCA Victor include El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo (1956 and 1959), La Nueva Dimensión (1968, with "La Bikina") and Fiesta en Jalisco (1970). Government-sponsored tours before the 1968 Olympics and the 1970 World Cup took them to Morocco, Japan, Hong Kong and elsewhere. Linda Ronstadt sang with them on Canciones de mi padre (1987), arranged and produced by Fuentes, which won a Grammy. They are the group backing singers like Pedro Infante, Jorge Negrete, José Alfredo Jiménez, Vicente Fernández, Juan Gabriel and Luis Miguel.

José Martínez became musical director in 1975 and Carlos Martínez in 2014; Martínez described the group as the sixth generation in 2018, with 14 musicians. They marked 120 years at the Teatro Diana in Guadalajara on November 30, 2018, and began a 125th anniversary tour on May 27, 2022 in Seattle. Arhoolie issued their first recordings, from 1937 to 1947, as CD 7015, with notes by Jonathan Clark.