Nestled between the major eclipse event of Monday and the onset of Fiesta 10 days later, the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center welcomes the spring season with its 8th annual Noche de Romance on Friday evening.
With weather luck, the waxing moon will overlook the evening festivities, which run from 8-10 p.m. in the outdoor Plaza Guadalupe. Attendees of all ages will take in romantic mariachi music from a number of groups, with the headlining Mariachi Azteca de América performing an array of traditional Mexican love songs, boleros, baladas and rancheras.
“You can expect traditional mariachi music, you can expect virtuoso pieces, you can expect the nostalgia of these traditional songs and artists,” said Gino Rivera, traditional music director of the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center and bandleader of Mariachi Azteca de América.
A style that unites
“The really cool part is the age range that attends the shows,” Rivera said, from young enthusiasts and their parents to older couples who appreciate the 150-year-old art form.
“It’s a special evening to see the youth and the elderly interact and enjoy the same type of music. That’s rare. And I believe mariachi music is one of those styles that really unite,” Rivera said.
Performers include mariachi groups from McAuliffe Middle School, Harris Middle School and Jay High School led by instructors Miguel Angel Ibarra and Eric Jorge Garcia. Mariachi Azteca de América will accompany performances by 9-year-old phenom Mateo Lopez, Jonathan Palomar, formerly of Mariachi Vargas, and Rhonda Garcia, a performer and mariachi instructor for 26 years.
The advanced group of the Guadalupe Academy will also perform.
Funding youth programs
Funds raised from the event will go to the Guadalupe Center’s mariachi education programs.
While Noche de Romance is a concert, Rivera said, “it’s also great to tie in the students to show them what they can become” by performing alongside a professional group and “world-renowned vocalists.”
Vocalist and violinist Rhonda Garcia, who has performed at all but one Noche de Romance, said she, too, appreciates the intergenerational appeal of mariachi music. “Mariachi transcends all boundaries, so it’s a night where everyone comes together. It’s a night of familia, of family connection.”
Garcia said that when she’s performing at the event, “I look out into the audience and it fills my heart to be able to see an 80-year-old woman with her husband, and then next to them is a 13-year-old child who’s enjoying the music just as much.”
Rivera said the plaza allows seating for 500 patrons.
Tickets are available through the Guadalupe Center website at several price levels, from $20 standing general admission and $35 seated general admission to VIP sections at $40-$50.
