One of my fondest memories of mariachi was the gig we did on 5/5/08. It was “Art’s First” weekend, which is a week long event that has different groups perform and display their artwork. The mariachi was asked to walk around Harvard Square and play on the day of Cinco de Mayo. We went and played outside “Mexican” restaurants, which included Chipotle’s, Qdoba, and Boloco. It was so much fun. People started following us and one of the best places we played was in front of Border Cafe, a tex-mex kind of restaurant. It’s a very popular place and that night, there was a whole bunch of people waiting outside. So it was the perfect audience because they had no choice but to listen.
That day was another testament to how far mariachi has come since its founding. We didn’t have every member of the group present, but we were still able to roam and play over 2 hours of music all by memory. One image that stays with me was when we were playing outside of Boloco and the sun was setting, casting an orangey glow over the entire group. I thought to myself, “What would it be like if we actually played together in Texas or in Mexico, in the setting sun with desert and cacti in the background?” I looked around and saw some of the most amazing and most fun people I’ve ever met at Harvard, and I wished that that night would never end.