There's a new band in town. They're playing a traditional style of Mexican music called "mariachi". Before meeting this new band, let's step back in time.
Mariachi music started hundreds of years ago, but the traditional style we see today began in the nineteenth century. Groups of farmers played together. Their instruments included traditional violins and different kinds of classical guitars. The smaller guitars played the higher notes, and a traditional bass guitar played the lower ones. They had trumpets (小号)，too. The music was often loud, happy and exciting, but it could also be quiet and romantic. The musicians wore traditional suits with silver buttons and a wide Mexican hat.
The mariachi played and danced at celebrations such as birthdays and weddings. As people from Mexico moved around the world, the mariachi tradition spread, too. In the past, mariachi bands were always men and they always sang in Spanish.
Today, there's an all-woman mariachi band in New York, the USA. Some of the women have Mexican or Puerto Rican families, but others do not. So the band sometimes sing in Spanish and sometimes in English. They sing traditional songs, but they also sing modern songs in a mariachi style. They still dress in traditional mariachi suits. The band is building on the mariachi tradition and making mariachi music to fit today's modern world.
