Everything seems to bring me to Mexico lately. I love the country, Guadalajara is one my favorite cities in the world and I am so glad that my job brings me there. I was given a staff last week and it happens that they are located in Guadalajara. Therefore I will have to manage them remotely and fly down once a month. Although most of them speak decent english, I must become fluent in Spanish in the next few months. So they got me "Rosetta Stone" and I am on my way to master another language. I love downtown Guadalajara with its Spanish style buildings, its old churches that fill me with so many wonderful memories and the old ornate gazebo standing in the center of the plaza. I cannot wait to return.
Guadalajara is considered the birthplace of the Mariachi, although one can trace the originals to Cocula about 40 miles away. As I love Mariachi and Ranchera singers I always wanted to go to the Mariachi festival there but I missed it this year as it took place at the beginning of September. But I was lucky enough to live in a city that holds the second biggest Mariachi festival, San Jose.
The event lasts for the whole month and pretty much ends at the end of September with a large concert.I never miss it and this year was a tribute to women in Mariachi music, three in particular Lola Beltran, Lucha Reyes and Amalia Mendoza. While those legends are long gone, three contemporary women took their place, Linda Ronstadt, who is also the artistic director for the festival, Aida Cuevas, a world famous ranchera singer, and my most favorite of all Lila Downs, who has one most incredible voices in the world. The concert lasted four hours and was phenomenal.
