This year’s Fiesta del Mariachi, unfolding at the School of Arts and Culture at Mexican Heritage Plaza, can be understood as the latest iteration in a long history of musical programming.
“We can even call it sort of a reincarnation,” says Edgar Ochoa, Mexican Heritage Plaza’s director of community engagement and one of the fiesta organizers.
Over the years, there were huge week-long festivals. There were smaller events with a workshop element on one day, then gigs the following day. At one point, 15 years ago, Linda Ronstadt and Carlos Santana were even mixed up in the whole thing.
Nowadays, following periods of hiatus, Covid and the eternal restructuring due to budgets, sponsors and eternally conflicting ideas about what a mariachi festival should include, the current version of the fiesta continues to expand. This year it becomes one of the only events at MHP curated as a sit-down ticketed event in the outdoor plaza space, rather than a free-flowing adventure where everyone circulates through as they see fit.
Both local and non-local talent are featured. The lineup includes Mariachi Sol de México de José Hernández, plus local legends Mariachi Azteca and the all-female powerhouse Mariachi Femenil Orgullo Mexicano. Everyone’s favorite folkloric dance troupe 55 years running, Los Lupeños de San José, will also perform. There will be food vendors, graduates of the East Side Grown program that Veggielution helped launch several years ago.
The plaza already evokes a town-square type of feel, so the crowd is close enough to the performers to make the experience an intimate one.
“Even the rows all the way in the back are an excellent line of sight,” Ochoa says. “And if you’re in the front and middle, you’re right there where the action is.”
After all the various ways in which a mariachi or Mexican heritage music festival has evolved in San Jose, Ochoa says right now the idea is to keep this incarnation of fiesta simple, and make sure it remains on everyone’s radar as it continues to expand, slowly and safely. Don’t go crazy. Not yet. Just keep refining what’s already a good thing.
“The goal and future to me, and I think to us, is expanding enough that we can host at our maximum capacity with seating and standing room, yet keeping the event within the plaza walls,” Ochoa said. “I think constant refinement for us is always going to be a big thing. And so I want to make sure that we keep true to staying within the plaza walls, but not limiting ourselves either.”
Plenty of potential to expand remains on the horizon. The fiesta isn’t even using the indoor theater yet, which would elevate everything to another level, both for the performers and the audience. The school now also owns the crumbling strip-mall across the street, where still more ideas are in the works, including a potential café space and a black box theater venue.
The future looks bright. But if people are longing for the days when the Shark Tank was part of the Mariachi and Mexican Heritage Festival, or when Lila Downs and Linda Ronstadt were among the highlights, well, it might take a while. Balance remains necessary.
“We need the big dreamers within the team,” Ochoa says. “The people that go, ‘Yeah, actually let’s get this back to 10,000 people, how can we get this back?’ And then you need the people who balance it out and go, ‘Well, are we there yet? What did we not figure out these past years? What is the lift? What is it going to require? What are the financial elements that we need to take into account?’”
Ultimately, says Ochoa, any future expansion must take into account the poor folks in the neighborhood as well as the high rollers who can pay the prices. Right now, the Mexican Heritage Plaza is a great venue, a splendid outdoor space where every seat just rocks. It should stay that way for the time being.
“Our whole team truly believes every seat is a good seat somehow,” he said. “It doesn’t feel like I need binoculars to see or experience the event. And it’s a multigenerational event.”
Fiesta del Mariachi takes place July 27, 6:30-10pm, at Mexican Heritage Plaza, 1700 Alum Rock Ave, San Jose. Tickets: $33.85+ via Eventbrite.com.
