San Antonio mariachi artist keeps spreading the music across America

Ten years ago, Anthony Medrano stepped onto the stage of the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, just hours before he was set to direct the premiere mariachi music festival called Mariachi USA.

That spring morning, the San Antonio native stood alone on the empty stage and looked around at the 18,000 seats that cheering fans would fill that night.

Medrano couldn’t help but marvel at how folklorico dancing and mariachi music had propelled him, a youngster from the East Side, to one of the world’s most-renowned venues. It felt like an out-of body-experience as he stood under the legendary band shell where musical icons including Billie Holiday, The Beatles and Carlos Santana once played.

Then a voice, booming from loudspeakers, greeted him.

“Hello Anthony. Welcome back,” the disembodied voice blared.

Stunned, he thought, “Wow, the Hollywood Bowl knows my name.”

Turns out it was a sound technician speaking through the venue’s public address system, not a call from the heavens.

It’s a cherished memory for Medrano, who will be back at the Hollywood Bowl on June 6 for the 37th Mariachi USA, an annual event that celebrates the legacy of traditional Mexican music.

Rodri Rodriguez is the producer and Medrano will be associate producer and director for this year’s Mariachi USA, which is expected to last about four hours and conclude with a fireworks display. Nearly 300 cast and crew members will be involved in making the event happen.

This year, the event will feature San Antonio group Mariachi Azteca de America. The 12-piece group, which was founded by Gino Rivera in 2006, is a two-time winner of the Houston Stock Show and Rodeo’s professional mariachi competition.

For 50 years, Medrano has been a guardian of mariachi, a Mexican cultural tradition that dates to the 18th century. He said Mariachi USA shows that the art form goes far beyond the borders of Mexico.

“There are three words that come to heart,” Medrano said. “And that’s “we are America.”

Medrano’s parents, Carmilo and Esther Medrano, weren’t involved in mariachi while he was growing up in San Antonio. But his younger sister was a student in folklorico classes, and an instructor encouraged him to join.

The rigorous training gave him discipline and a love of music. Medrano performed at venues across the nation and in Mexico and received a dance scholarship at San Antonio College. 

In 1978, he met musician Juan Ortiz while playing basketball on the West Side, a meeting that would affect his future. Several years later, Ortiz invited him to join Mariachi Campanas de América (in English, Bells of America). Ortiz, a San Antonio native and two-time Grammy winner, taught Medrano how to play the violin and within months he was performing mariachi music.

Ortiz was married to the late Belle Ortiz, a San Antonio Independent School District educator known as the Mother of Mariachi Music Education. The couple is credited with founding the first International Mariachi Festival in 1979. Medrano and the group chronicled her last days and produced a film, “Suena La Educacion: The Story of Belle Ortiz,” that has won three international film awards. Belle Ortiz died in July 2023.

Mariachi Campanas de América went on to perform at President Bill Clinton’s inaugural gala and for President George W. Bush at the White House Rose Garden.

Medrano added an element of entertainment through folklorico dance steps. With Ortiz, he switched from traditional black suits to “campanas,” which are blue outfits with silver galas adorning the pants and jacket. His titles with the group have included stage director, script writer and choreographer. 

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Medrano met Rodriguez in 1990, while playing at the first Mariachi USA in Los Angeles. Rodriguez, who founded the event, hired Medrano to direct one of the first mariachi shows in Las Vegas.  Medrano recalls loading a U-Haul truck and saying goodbye to his wife, Laura Barberena, a San Antonio political consultant. After a six-month run, Rodriguez asked him to co-direct Mariachi USA.

Rodriguez said she was drawn to Medrano’s love of music and community. 

“No one had given him the opportunity to shine at the helm of something bigger,” she said. “I could trust him because our missions matched. He is part of what the heart of Mariachi USA is about.”

Rodriguez came to the United States in the early 1960s as a 7-year-old when her anti-Fidel Castro parents sent her from Cuba through Operation Pedro Pan, a U.S. government program initiated with Catholic Charities of Miami. Rodriguez was one of 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban children ages 6 to 18 who boarded the flights to Miami.

After four months in a refugee camp, she was placed in a foster home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Several years later, her parents came to America and moved to Los Angeles with their daughter.

As a young adult, Rodriguez worked behind the scenes at a Latin record company and other entertainment agencies before starting her own company.

Rodriguez said Mariachi USA is a tribute to mariachis who live and work across the nation.  

“They are the ones who play at backyard barbecues, baptisms, weddings, engagements, graduations and quinceaneras,” Rodriguez said. “And eventually, at funerals.”

Medrano and Rodriguez said they hope to expand the festival to other cities. 

“The success of the festival belongs to our Mexican-American and Latin communities in the United States,” Medrano said. “And this community will be here long after you and I are gone.”