- As Hispanic Heritage Month comes to a close,
I want to introduce a group of women shattering
the glass ceiling in the male dominated world of mariachi.
Their goal is to keep this traditional Mexican music alive
while adding a touch of femininity.
From Sacramento, California, give it up
for Dinorah, Janessa, Audra, Jordan and Samantha.
Mariachi Bonitas!
(mariachi music begins)
(Mariachi Bonitas singing in foreign language)
(mariachi music ends)
(audience cheering)
Come on over.
Oh my god!
I loved it!
It's nice to meet you.
- It's nice to meet you, Kelly.
- Nice to meet you.
Have a seat.
- Thank you.
- Oh my god, it sounds so beautiful.
I grew up singing a harmony with like a bunch of girls too.
It's just the blend is so nice.
- Thank you so much. - It's so beautiful.
- I don't know if everybody's met.
But meet Hasan and Malia. - Yes. Hello, hi.
- I grew up near Sacramento. Davis.
(audience cheering)
- He's like represent.
- Yes, very well.
- Well, I want to share a little bit,
a little bit more about the lyrics
of what you were saying.
So they're translating in English
and it's "beautiful are the women of my beloved Mexico.
"Beautiful are it's songs,
"it's valleys and mountains.
"Beautiful are the stars that shine upon its beaches,
"and Mariachi Bonitas sing with joy
"to our beautiful country."
That's so cool.
- Thank you, thank you, thank you.
- I wanted everybody to know what you're singing.
So you wrote that song, right? - I did, I did.
- Okay so why, why is a song like this so important to you?
- Well I wanted to have, for us to have
a theme that not only represent us as women.
Like you say, Mariachi Bonitas is very feminine.
That's representing what we are.
But not only that is, is to
give a tribute, pay a tribute to the culture,
to our music, to our art.
That is so, so us, you know.
And being far away from Mexico
well of course you have to, have that in you
and in, in playing this song makes us
just have Mexico in our hearts, you know.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- Closer to us.
And now being all females as well,
we can be a little, you know, sassy and feminine
and so, we can get away with that.
- You bring something different.
Yeah, I love that.
Well, Audra and Jordan, why did you want to join in?
What does it mean to you to be a part of the group?
- [Audra] Well I've been,
I've been playing the violin for over 16 years
and I was a high school Spanish teacher.
And I saw a huge decline in knowledge of mariachi.
They thought it was all the same thing.
I was like, no man, this is beautiful stuff.
So I, you know, I cooperate with lessons.
But more than that,
I really wanted to empower the females
in my high school that I was teaching at.
And just in general that you don't see that many females
in mariachi world.
- I've never seen it until today.
Honest to God.
That's why I was like,
when I was so excited about y'all coming on,
I was like, I have seen a lot of mariachi bands,
I feel like in my lifetime
and I've never seen a female in it.
So I thought it was so cool.
- [Audra] Yeah.
- [Kelly] Well, Jordan, how about you?
(audience clapping)
- I saw her post on Facebook and I am not Hispanic,
but I have played in orchestras.
I've played in jazz bands and operas
and I thought, I'm going to do it.
I'm going to try it, I'm going to see what it's like.
And I started, it was,
it was a little bit rough of a start,
but we practiced every week. It's so much fun.
The culture, I've completely embraced the culture.
It is a family everywhere we go.
We've played gigs where they feed us.
They're dancing and singing.
And it is so much fun.
I've never experienced anything like this before.
- See I kind of loved your story from this.
Like I was,
(mumbles)
reading last night about you in the group.
And I was like, I love that like,
everybody always thinks that you have to be like,
oh you have to be Mexican to like this.
I'm like, no, you don't.
You don't have to be any kind of color,
walk a lot to like any kind of music or anything.
And I think that that's really cool.
The other little girls see that as an opportunity as well.
- [Jordan] Yeah.
- So it's really cool what you're doing.
It's beautiful music, I love it.
- [Female Mariachi's] Thank you, thank you.
- [Kelly] It's so beautiful
But Sammy, what about you?
- Well, I started in high school.
I got out of high school
and I was gigging professionally, like with other musicians,
and then Dinorah contacted me about the all girl group
and I was like, yeah, why not, you know?
I think it's really important that we're an all girl group
because traditionally it's all men.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- [Sammy] You know, and we're like, bam!
in your face, you know, like.
(group laughing)
So, yeah, that. - I love that.
That's so cool.
And what a cool sisterhood too,
to like, share like in that that's cool.
- [Sammy] Yeah, these are my homies.
- Yeah, that's so good.
That's so good. And Janessa, you're the youngest, right?
- Yes, I am.
- [Kelly] So, so I mean, what do you love about it?
- Yeah, so I'm 17 years old
and music has always been my passion.
I believe I got my love for music from my grandfather.
He is a Colombian composer.
Unfortunately, he passed last year.
However, being able to be a part of this band
let's me be close to him, let's me connect with him
and as well, let's me be able to connect with my heritage.
And of course being a part of this group gives me
it's, it's an amazing experience
and it's an amazing opportunity
to be with such a wonderful group of ladies.
- Beautiful.
And you actually, Malia, you're working hard right now
to help women get their voices heard right now,
as well right?
- Yeah, I'm co-hosting #GirlHero Awards
on October 14th and I just feel really honored
to be a part of such an incredible community for sure.
- Absolutely.
Yes, stand up for each other.