Join us Sunday, February 16, from 2 to 4 PM, for a book signing and mariachi performance at the New Mexico History Museum.
In Boyle Heights, gateway to East Los Angeles, stands the 1889 “Hotel Mariachi,” where musicians have gathered on the adjacent plaza for more than half a century. Newly restored, the brick building embodies a triumphant struggle of preservation against the odds, and its origins open a portal into the Mexican pueblo’s centuries-old multiethnic past.
In Hotel Mariachi, their new book published by the University of New Mexico Press, authors Catherine L. Kurland and Enrique R. Lamadrid, along with photographer Miguel A. Gandert, explore mariachis, the hotel, and its surrounding community in words and images.
Join us on Sunday, February 16, at 2 pm for an auditorium lecture and book signing graced by a performance of the Santa Fe High School Mariachi Band in the magnificent acoustics of the History Museum’s lobby.
The event, co-hosted by Andrew Smith Gallery in Santa Fe, is free with admission; Sundays are free to NM residents.
Hotel Mariachi, part of UNM Press’ Querencia Series, provides a unique lens through which to view the history and culture of Mexicano California, and provides touching insights into the challenging lives of mariachi musicians. Their history and that of the community are personal to Kurland, the award-winning executive editor of Chronicles of the Trail, a journal of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro Trail Association. A descendant of the entrepreneur who built Hotel Mariachi, she possesses Californio roots that tie to early Los Angeles and Mexican American history.
Lamadrid explores mariachi music, poetry, and fiestas, and the role that Los Angeles played in their development, delving into the origins of the music and offering a deep account of mariachi poetics. He is distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of New Mexico, as well as the author and translator of numerous books for both adults and children.
Gandert’s exquisite black-and-white photographs populate the book, documenting the hotel and the vibrant mariachi community of the “Garibaldi Plaza of Los Angeles.” Gandert is an internationally known documentary and art photographer and distinguished professor and director of Interdisciplinary Film and Digital Media at UNM.
Image above: Ambiciones relumbrantes/Shining Ambitions, by Miguel A. Gandert, from thebook Hotel Mariachi, University of New Mexico Press.
Join us Sunday, February 16, from 2 to 4 PM, for a book signing and mariachi performance at the New Mexico History Museum.
NEW MEXICO HISTORY MUSEUM