Made in the 956: Mariachi music fills the walls of San Juan Basilica
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It's Holy Week for those among the Catholic faith. It's the week that leads up to Easter.
Many people will be heading to the San Juan Basilica to celebrate Easter mass. Those that go will hear the mariachi music that's part of the culture at the basilica.
When you open the gold-plated doors at the Basilica during mass times, you'll hear a familiar sound.
"I'm sure a lot of people come here to see the Virgin and the mariachi," Father Jorge Gomez said.
From trumpets to violins to guitarrones and many other instruments.
Father Gomez is from Jalisco, where mariachi is king. He says when he came to the Rio Grande Valley, he felt right at home.
"It's an essential part of the Basilica, for years, they've been playing here," Gomez said. "Without the mariachi, the Basilica is not the same."
The group was created back in 1985. Francisco Morales was a founding member of the mariachi.
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Morales and his choir group were given the challenge by Father Manuel Villarreal to start the new group.
"He liked how we sang, but he gave us the challenge of creating a mariachi, he gave us one year to do so," Morales said.
Morales says at the time, they knew nothing about mariachi music and everything it entailed. So the hard work of learning how to play started.
"After six months, he asked how we were doing. He said, "I want to hear you all." He told us we sounded good, and we began to play during mass," Morales said.
It brings people from all over to the Basilica of our Lady of Sun Juan Del Valle.
"When they enter, they see how magnificent it is, and they see everyone participating, they say, I'm coming next Sunday to church," Morales said.
You can even say the sounds of mariachi music are universal.
"Even those who come from up north, the Winter Texans," Gomez said. "It is an essential part of the Valley. We love mariachi, bringing it into the Basilica is like enculturating what we have, making it part of our liturgy, that's what it is."
The sweet sounds of the trumpets, guitars and violins know no borders. You can enjoy the music in English at certain masses throughout the week.
"Mariachi in English, everything, from the beginning until the end," Morales said.
He says there are now other mariachi groups at churches across the Diocese of Brownsville.
"For example, at Holy Spirit in McAllen, there's a group of people who have created a mariachi. We are the example, they are taking what we do here and playing it at their church services," Morales said.
Gomez says this is something unique to the Rio Grande Valley.
"We pray, and we worship god, with our own music with what we have," Gomez said.
Mariachi Basilica of our Lady of San Juan Del Valle is made in the 956.
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