Mariachis make sweet music for home team at Isotopes Park

The twin trumpets lent Mariachi Cardenal its traditional brassy sound, while four violinists, a guitarist, a bassist, a guitarron player and a vihuela player blared out “Y Andale” on the concourse at Isotopes Park on Saturday.

A full-size Isotopes Mariachi Bobblehead almost seemed to keep time with the band, and fans wandering by stopped to occasionally sing along or just appreciate the effort of the musicians.

The band, whose musicians all hail from Las Vegas, New Mexico — most of whom are still in high school or middle school — played about a 45-minute set that stretched well into the first inning.

This was the third of six Mariachi Nights for the Isotopes, who donned the name and jerseys of their popular Mariachis de Nuevo Mexico alter ego. And on this night, the home team came away with a 13-3 win after scoring six runs in the second inning.

As for the musical fiesta, it is an important way to keep the culture alive, said James Leger, Cardenal band leader.

“It’s an iconic part of Mexican culture that has been adopted by Mexican Americans,” he said. “And they mix it together, but then it almost disappeared in Mexico. The Mexican Americans picked it up and kind of reinvigorated it. And, and it’s been given new life in Mexico because of the impetus from the Mexican American.”

As fans wandered past and mingled with the musicians, Leger this was a great experience for them.

“It’s great for us because it gives us an opportunity to perform for a much, much larger audience than we ever get anywhere else,” he said. “Also, it gives us an opportunity to play in front of people outside of our own community, the wider people from all over New Mexico are here and they hear us.”

One of Leger’s former students at Robertson High School, Amanda Bustamante, has been playing mariachi music since she was a youngster

“My auntie has run a mariachi group based out of Santa Fe. So they’ve played forever,” she said. “All of my grandma’s grandkids started to play. I started playing in the third grade. It’s super fun. I love people. I love yelling out ‘Qué viva los mariachis,’ just to see what happens. So I think it’s really fun.”

The music just moves her, said Bustamante, who plays the guitarron.

“I just love it. It makes me feel at home. It’s something that you can cry to,” she said. “You can laugh to it. You can scream at. I love it, it’s great. And dance. I love to dance.”

On another portion of the concourse, dancers from the Baila! Baila! Dance Academy twirled and spun to the music from the stadium speakers, a mix of vibrant colors in their outfits, swirling in time to the rhythm.

“It’s really important to bring all kinds of the regions from Mexico. So we always bring like the northern region Sinaloa, Jalisco. And every time we get the opportunity to dance on the fields, we try to do a different region,” said Liliana Chacon, an academy dance teacher.

“It’s right on the coast of Mexico so the dresses have a lot of flower elements and the headpieces are all floral. So it’s super coastal and the band music is a big part of the vibrant colors.”

Eight-year-old Brooklynn Woodward said there’s nothing she’d rather be doing than dancing to mariachi music.

“I just did it because I thought it would be really fun,” she said. “And I like dancing. It’s my favorite hobby to do. It just gets all my energy out and it just brings me joy.”

The fans got into the spirit of the night, as well, with many wearing outfits from previous mariachi promotions.

“It’s a good time. Me and my buddies come out to all of the games because of the simple fact that it’s a little bit more entertaining for the crowd, some of the stuff that goes on,” he said. “Just watching all the different people react to the dancers. Things like that.”

At one of the previous Mariachi nights, during the youth crowd cam, “We held one of our friends completely up over our heads,” Vigil said with a chuckle. “And he’s not small. We always seem to have a good time. It’s becoming a tradition.”