Mariachi students from the Sweetwater Union High School District and Southwestern College created a flash mob Wednesday night at Plaza Bonita to promote the fourth annual International Mariachi Festival and Competition in National City.
The free family festival takes place at Pepper Park, 3299 Tidelands Ave., from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, March 13.
“This event supports mariachi education in the schools,” said Jacqueline Reynoso, president of the National City Chamber of Commerce. “Also it is a great economic boost to our city. We represent a large majority of Latinos in National City; about 65 percent of our population is Latino and from that population, primarily of Mexican descent.”
Reynoso said she is expecting about 20,000 people to attend the event. There will also be food, retail and corporate vendors at the event.
Five mariachis with ballet folkloric dances gave those in the Plaza Bonita food court a preview on what to expect this Sunday.
“We brought (mariachi) students here just to get together and kind of surprise everybody,” said Jeff Nevin, mariachi professor at SWC and director of the Mariachi Scholarship Foundation.
A group of shoppers even joined in on some of the song and dance.
“It’s great seeing our Latino students preserve our mariachi heritage,” said shopper and observer Rudolpho Saenz. “Mariachi always bonds a family together.”
Saenz, an avid mariachi fan and National City resident, said he plans to attend the Mariachi Festival and Competition with his family for the first time.
On March 11 and 12, prior to the festival, students will participate in a two-day conference at the University of San Diego with students from all over the country and Mexico.
Nevin said the festival is a musical tradition for families in the South Bay.
“The reason we have mariachi programs in schools here is because there’s so many Mexican-American students here, whether they are first-generation Americans or second- and third-generation Americans,” he said. “And it’s extremely powerful for the families of those kids who are in school to see their children playing mariachi music, playing the songs that they heard when they were growing up back home.”
