The Sounds of the Rainbow
Music is considered to be the universal language. People listen to music for many different reasons, but it makes an impact on most. Musicians have taken that influence into consideration, and many now use their music as a form of activism.
“It is a really powerful way to get that message across,” said Rudy Vasquez, CSUN alumnus and trumpet player for Mariachi Arcoiris de Los Angeles. “….[We have the ability to] to inform people, because they are not only being informed, they feel what you feel.”
Mariachi Arcoiris de Los Angeles is likely the very first openly LGTBQ mariachi in history. Its members are trying to use their music to break barriers in the music world. The group provides a safe haven for mariachi musicians identifying with the LGTBQ community who want to perform traditional Mexican regional music.
Traditionally mariachis are male dominated and considered to have a machismo identity, with male chauvinistic tendencies. Therefore a mariachi is not a place where someone of the LGTBQ community would feel comfortable or free be themselves.
“We needed a place where we were free from bullying, being made fun of, being talked about behind our backs, and [suffering] discrimination,” said Carlos Samaniego, director of Mariachi Arcoiris, “different type of things that all of us, unfortunately, have suffered.”
“The group also has members who are straight and considered allies,” Vasquez said. “It’s great to see they could play comfortably with us, and know that about us and they are not going to feel that their masculinity is being threatened or anything. It’s like helping out or being a part of any other mariachi. They go in there and play with no reservations.”
Females have been a part of the mariachi world since 1903, when the first documented female mariachi musician, Rosa Quirino, played in a mariachi band, but to some it is still uncommon to think of female mariachis. The first all-female group was the Las Adelitas formed in 1948, which was directed by a male. Today only about thirty all-female mariachi perform in the United States.
Mariachi Arcoiris welcomes women, and is proud to have the first transgender female in mariachi history, Natalia Melendez, as their violinist.
“There were a lot of obstacles I had to go through to be comfortable,” Melendez said. “I never was expecting to be in a leadership role to the world, and I’ve been blessed with that; I’ve been given this kind of responsibility through everything that I’ve done.”
In 2015, gay marriage became legal throughout the United States, demonstrating that times are changing for the LGTBQ community.
“Your generation is more flexible, adaptable and open, and not as concerned about rigid boundaries about sexuality and gender,” CSUN Communication Studies Professor Kathryn Sorrells said. “I think those kind of [musical] performances are shifting [perceptions] for people in ways that I think are really helpful. Not everywhere, not all the time, but certain spaces are more open.”
Despite these advances ,the LGTBQ community is uncertain of its future under the Trump administration, and continues to experience discrimination such as harassment, misgendered pronouns, other forms of hate speech, and exclusion from basic public accommodations and many other areas in society.
But with artists and groups such as Mariachi Arcoiris de Los Angeles, who use music as a tool to advocate for a change, many say there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
“Music and protest are going to continue to come together in really powerful and creative ways in the next decade,” Sorrells said.
Moderator: Julie Nesbitt
Producers: Amber Partida and Abril Preciado
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Reporters: Yesenia Burgara, Shelby Charlene, Malcolm Finney, Julie Nesbitt, Amber Partida, Curtis Poindexter and Abril Preciado