Mariachi Tesoro de San Fernando

This exclusive web extra features a performance by the award-winning Mariachi Tesoro de San Fernando, a group created by Nati Cano to pass on the mariachi tradition to the next generation of talented musicians.

Nati Cano's Commitment to Education

Transforming how audiences engaged with mariachi music wasn't Nati Cano's only innovation. In 1972, Rebecca Gonzales joined Los Camperos as the first woman mariachi. While the move was first met with hostility, Nati Cano took a longer view. "And look what has occurred. All of a sudden, the girls in the schools said, "Hey, it is possible. Why not?"

Time has proven Nati right. Beginning with Los Camperos and then expanding into the burgeoning mariachi programs at UCLA, women mariachi performers are now a regular feature in the mariachi scene. And there is no better place to see this influence than in the next generation of performers like Mariachi Tesoro de San Fernando.

Mariachi Tesoro de San Fernando is a group of advanced students from the award winning and nationally recognized arts-in-education program, the City of San Fernando Mariachi Master Apprentice Program (MMAP).

Created in 2001 in collaboration with Nati Cano, MMAP "unites young students with master musicians in the communities of the north-east San Fernando Valley to study the popular and traditional Mexican art forms. Through the study of culturally-relevant musical traditions, young people are discovering a sense of pride in the heritage of their families, developing positive self-identities; contributing as young citizens to the underserved communities they live in and are preserving and disseminating the traditional arts."

The program has been an unequivocal success. In fact, Mariachi Tesoro just won the 2012 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award and were feted by Michelle Obama at arecent ceremony.

Mariachi Tesoro de San Fernando: Stefanie Espinoza, Nicole Rivera, Ernesto Lazaro, Fabian Narez, Esbeyde Sanchez, Alejandro Ascencio, Anthony Fino, Daniel Zamora, Lino Sanchez, Crystal Barajas, Sherline Lopez, Cesar Zuniga, Adrian Ascencio, Gerardo Ascencio, Erandi Sanchez, and Alexis Morales.