“The Magic of Mariachi/La Magia del Mariachi” is a bilingual exhibit that opens this week in the Performing Arts Complex as part of the Festival of International Books and Arts (FESTIBA).
The exhibit consists of 24 pastel paintings of Mariachi musicians and Folklórico dancers created by artist Reefka Schneider. Twenty-four text panels will feature the poems written in English by her husband, Steven Schneider, a creative writing professor, and translated into Spanish by UTRGV Associate Professor Edna Ochoa.
“The poems tell stories about the musicians and how their lives have been transformed and changed through playing Mariachi music,” Steven Schneider said.
He specified that some of the paintings are based on members of the Mariachi Aztlán at UTRGV, and others are of professional musicians.
Schneider researched the history of Mariachi so that anyone that comes to visit the exhibit will learn about Mariachi’s background and history. Some of the greatest performers in this genre featured in the poems are Laura Sobrino, Lola Beltrán, José Alfredo Jiménez, Pedro Infante and some of the most famous Mariachi ensembles.
“We wanted the culture of Mexico and the language of Spanish to be part of the exhibit and part of the book,” Schneider said.
The Schneiders attended Mariachi Aztlán’s concerts and rehearsals over the last several years and they became inspired by them.
One of the main themes of the exhibit “is the empowerment that student musicians gain from playing Mariachi music, in terms of learning teamwork, self-discipline and skills of performance,” Steven Schneider said.
Another important theme they wanted to emphasize is that more women are becoming involved in Mariachi music and the number of all-women Mariachi ensembles is increasing. This evolves from the fact that Mariachi music has been historically played only by men.
“On the cover of our book we put a female Mariachi trumpet player to make the point that today … women have an important role to play not only in Mariachi but other leadership positions around the world,” Steven Schneider said.
The process they used to create the book is ekphrasis. Reefka Schneider explained that “it’s a long tradition of poets responding to works of art.”
She created many paintings, and Steven Schneider chose 24 that he related to, that he had a story or poem to tell.
The Schneiders are familiar with this process as they have collaborated together before in the creation of the book “Borderlines: Drawing Border Lives” and also translated into Spanish as “Fronteras: Dibujando las vidas fronterizas.”
Reefka Schneider explained the differences between the two exhibits. She mostly used charcoal in “Borderlines.” For “The Magic of Mariachi,” she wanted to focus on color. Her main goal was to paint pure colors to bring out the joy and passion of the music.
Dahlia Guerra, assistant vice president of Public Art at UTRGV, wrote an introduction for “The Magic of Mariachi” book.
“Since I’ve been involved with the Mariachi for 30 years, of course it gives me great pleasure to see that much effort and talent has been put into this beautiful exhibit which features Mariachi musicians,” Guerra said.
The exhibit coincides with the 30th anniversary of the Mariachi program at UTRGV.
FESTIBA was established in 2006 to promote the importance of literacy, culture and the arts to students, parents, educators and community members throughout the Rio Grande Valley, according to the UTRGV website.
The opening reception for “The Magic of Mariachi”exhibit will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the UTRGV Performing Arts Complex lobby. Admission is free.
