Mariachi Night
Popular Cattle Call Week event continues to grow
BRAWLEY — Despite having attended Cattle Call Week’s Mariachi Night for more than 10 years, Westmorland resident Katie De Luna was still nervous when she took the stage to perform Wednesday night.
De Luna was one of the more than 25 local residents who signed up to participate in the event’s open mic session.
While on stage, De Luna’s nerves eventually calmed as she progressed through the highpitched notes of “Mariquita”.
A special performance during her time on stage from Las Flores Del Valle, a folklórico dance group that De Luna is a part of, helped alleviate some of the jitters of singing before a crowd of about 7,000 people.
“I could almost see faces that I recognized, and that made me feel a little more comfortable,” De Luna said. “The music kept going and my excitement just kept building more.”
De Luna recalled when the mariachi event, organized by the Brawley Chamber of Commerce, was first held at Cattle Call Park.
A number of years later, the event moved to the Wiest Field baseball park.
Since 2013, the event, which continues to be part of a weeklong celebration leading up to the annual Cattle Call Rodeo, was moved to Plaza Park, and has since expanded to take up all of Main Street in front of Plaza Park.
“Ever since then, they’ve been able to close the streets down for it,” De Luna said. “Our whole community comes together; our little town comes alive during Cattle Call, and this night, it’s like on its own now. It’s getting bigger and bigger, and this is what we look forward to.”
Prior to the open mic session, young dancers from Hidalgo Folklórico of Brawley performed.
The El-Centro based Mariachi Acero Del Valle then played a brief warm-up set for the event’s main group, Mariachi Calafia de Mexicali, which provided live instrumentals for each open mic participant.
Master of ceremonies for the event was Max Reyes. This year marked the 30th that Reyes has been an integral part of organizing the event.
As an Imperial Valley native and Brawley Union High Folklórico Club instructor, De Luna enjoys what the Mariachi Night event continues to bring annually.
“It’s reviving our town,” De Luna said. “It’s bringing back a lot of business to our town. When it gets bigger, it seems to me like it’s more exciting. You get more participants from the crowd to come up on stage. Everybody can just come out and sing, and that really is what I love. I love for other people to go up there and try it. That’s courage.”
Imperial resident Dulce Luna, 16, began singing at just 4 years old, but has been singing Mariachi for only the past few years.
“My Mexican heritage is there, but singing in Spanish was not always my thing,” Dulce, an Imperial High School junior who also plays alto saxophone with the school’s marching band, said. “So learning mariachi and loving it has gotten to me.”
About a year ago, Dulce’s parents showed their support for her singing talents by buying her a custom-made red-and-gold trajes charros, or mariachi suit, with her initials stitched onto the bowtie.
“My parents actually surprised me with it,” Dulce said. “They went to Guadalajara and they got it made there. I didn’t know about it whatsoever.”
Having performed locally in other events such as Calexico’s Mariachi Night, Dulce was confident taking the stage to sing “Cucurrucucu Paloma” — although, as with many other participants, the presence of the event’s large crowd affected her slightly.
“It was kind of nerve-wracking at first, but once I started singing the song, I started calming down my nerves because when I’m singing, everything goes away,” Dulce said. “It does take an effect on you because you don’t know what they’re going to say, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter — as long as you perform your heart out there, no matter what.”