2011 – Rubén Fuentes
Rubén Fuentes is undoubtedly the most important musical figure in the history of mariachi music. More than any other individual, he is responsible for shaping mariachi music into what it […]
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2010 – José “Pepe” Martínez
José Martínez Barajas, better known as “Pepe Martínez,” was born in 1941 in Tecalitlán, Jalisco, the birthplace of Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán. His father, Blas Martínez, was a harpist who […]
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2009 – Gustavo A. Santiago
Gustavo A. Santiago is one of the most important arrangers in mariachi music. “I was born listening to mariachi music,” says the musician whose father was a long time member of the […]
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2008 – Juan Pinzón Saldaña (1930 – 2012)
Violinist, Vocalist, Arranger, Musical Director Juan was born in 1930 in the town of Ameca, Jalisco. At the age of 8, ambition motivated him to move to Mexico City, where […]
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2007 – Pedro Ramírez Velázquez
Pedro Ramírez Velázquez—this year’s Mariachi Hall of Fame inductee—was born in 1939 in the village of Acámbaro, Guanajuato. In 1945, His family moved to Mexico City, where his father, a […]
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2005 – Rigoberto Alfaro
Rigoberto Alfaro, one of the most influential musicians in the history of mariachi music, is the 2005 Mariachi Spectacular International Hall of Fame inductee. If you listen to mariachi music, you […]
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2004 – Natividad “Nati” Santiago (1940-1992)
Natividad “Nati” Santiago joined Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán as a teenager in 1959 and soon developed speed, precision, tone, and an evenness or register previously unknown to the instrument. He remained […]
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2002 – Victor Cardenas Garcia “El Pato”
“Pato” was born on March 5, 1939 in a pueblo named Concepcion de Buenos Aires in the state of Jalisco, Mexico. He was the youngest of three brothers. He started playing […]
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2000 – Arturo Mendoza
The Dean of Mariachi Harpists The harp tradition of the sleepy, southern Jalisco village of Zapotiltic goes back to at least the 19th Century. Native José Mendoza (1903-1990) was among […]
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1998 – Manuel Esperon Gonzalez
Born in Mexico City, Manuel Experón Gonzales graduated in music from the Escuela Superior de Música in that nation’s capital. He began his musical career in the 1920s as a […]
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