For Fiesta, Conrad and Leonor Gonzales traveled back to their hometown of San Antonio intending to meet up with other distant family members.
However, the 34 young dancers in their charity ballet folklorico company needed to make a stop at Mariachi Connection to get dressed for their upcoming performance of a dance genre from the Mexican state of Mexico.
Conrad Gonzales, whose older brother Bruce is a well-known traditional dance instructor in San Antonio, declared that this location was "our go-to place right here." The founders of Ballet Folklorico de Barajas, Conrad Gonzales, and his wife, typically get their costumes from the Mariachi Connection catalog or website.
Conrad had the opportunity to sample some of his favorite local fares during the store visit. I miss this place - the people, the music, and the food," he remarked.
On the inside, the store erupts with vivid color, shared jokes, and occasionally music. It is located in a century-old, all-white Colonial mansion on the West Side.
Josie Benavides, a housewife and mother who started Mariachi Connection twenty-seven years ago, is credited with turning her living room into the largest supplier of mariachi and Folklorico costumes and instruments in the Southwest and probably the entire United States.
Benavides now runs the business, rings up clients, takes phone orders, and packs shipments with the assistance of her sons Joseph and Isaac Benavides and a staff of less than a dozen people.
Mariachi Connection offers a comprehensive selection of embroidered trajes, or suits, velvet sombreros, ribboned skirts, bright-white jarocho dresses, peasant blouses, boots, and shoes. Mariachi Connection also offers boots and shoes.
The store offers more than just the attire worn by actors. Also on display are the instruments used by mariachi musicians, including trumpets, violins, and fat guitarróns.
customers from coast to coast
The order processing area is located at the back of the store, and it is crowded with computers, phones, and clocks that display the times of various cities from coast to coast.
Although the black traje with silver gala is the most popular type, the company also fills custom orders in a variety of colors and patterns, according to Benavides.
Embroidery allows for customization of even the moos, or ties, which come in a wide variety of solid colors and tricolour stripes.
Like the Gonzales, customers travel from all around to purchase at the Mariachi Connection, and they do so for a variety of events, including weddings, quinceaneras, TV and movie productions, Fiesta, and Cinco de Mayo. Benavides remembered a client who wanted to wear the traje trousers with gala decorations while riding his motorbike.
Famous clients include the rock group ZZ Top and the rapper Paul Wall, who recently bought a personalized traje for his son, who, according to Benavides, has a lovely voice. The Mariachi Connection makes a silver and black traje that the Spurs Coyote occasionally dons.
The price of a men's or woman mariachi costume can range from $200 to $600, depending on the embroidery design and the amount of botonadura or gala, a silver and gold adornment.
We do sell to schools, and typically, just like band uniforms, they will emblazon their emblem or utilize their school colors on them.
Mariachi Connection makes a sizable portion of its revenue from providing costumes for the San Antonio Independent School District schools as well as dozens of other districts and colleges that offer mariachi and ballet folklorico lessons.
The early days of mariachi weren't as well-liked as they are now, according to Benavides. The old house's back rooms were being used as dancing studios when she established the shop, according to the woman, and they were lined with mirrors.
The boxes of costumes, instruments, shoes, and sombreros are now packed to the coffered ceilings. She remarked, "I've been here to watch the tiny kids starting from school, graduating, going to college, getting a degree, and now they're [mariachi] teachers.
A spectacle for the medium
Leading mariachi festival and concert producer Cynthia Muoz refers to San Antonio as the home of the entire mariachi festival movement, which had its start in 1979 with an annual competition that Belle San Miguel Ortiz founded.
Now, Muoz is in charge of planning the annual Mariachi Extravaganza, a week-long celebration that will take place at the Lila Cockrell Theatre from November 30 to December Second.
You must be logged in to post a comment.