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