Mariachi Los Camperos kicks off Underground Sound at Vilar in Beaver Creek

It’s especially apt that Mariachi Los Camperos celebrates the first day of National Hispanic Heritage Month Friday at The Vilar Performing Arts Center as part of its Underground Sound series, since the mariachi band’s founders worked so hard to change public perceptions about the musical art form, which both Mexicans and Americans tended to look down upon.

Founder Natividad “Nati” Cano, a third-generation mariachi musician in Jalisco, Mexico, grew up with formally trained musical peers looking down on the “working-class music.” Meanwhile, socioeconomic and racial prejudice underscored the judgmental attitude toward traditional Mexican music in the United States.

“Nati changed attitudes,” said Mariachi Los Camperos harpist Sergio Alonso. “He experienced prejudice, working in cantinas with his father and feeling the stigma of mariachi. He moved north, to Los Angeles, to change the perception that mariachi was a second-rate ensemble. He really just pivoted on this idea of representing the music and the culture. His idea was to use it as a vehicle to change perceptions of Mexicans, Americans and Mexican-Americans.”

Cano not only raised the artistry of the traditional music through more complex musicality, but also, he taught the musicians to respect themselves and the music and carry themselves with pride.

“He wanted to have a mariachi that would have dignity, that would have heart, that would have soul,” said artistic director Jesús “Chuy” Guzmán.

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As a classical trained musician himself, Cano’s dream included bringing mariachi into concert halls — a venue formerly unheard of for mariachi to perform, Alonso points out — and, sure enough, by 1964, Mariachi Los Camperos made it into Carnegie Hall.

Since then, Mariachi Los Camperos has built a reputation as one of the finest mariachi ensembles in the world. The Grammy-award-winning band has appeared on various PBS specials, played at the Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and Walt Disney Concert Hall and toured worldwide.

“We carry on with that legacy of elevating mariachi on its own terms … and being innovative within the tradition,” Alonso said.

One of the modern changes Cano brought was integrating women into high-profile ensembles. Traditionally, most of the musicians have been seeped in the form by learning it from their fathers, grandfathers, uncles and older brothers.

During their concerts, Mariachi Los Camperos takes audiences on a journey across Mexico through the many different musical styles of the country.

“It’s a cross-section of traditional, folk, music from Jalisco and popular music resonating in mainstream culture — a little taste of Mexico from very different angles,” Alonso said.

Historically, the music has been festive and danceable, and it remains that way still.

“It’s just lively, high-energy, exciting, fun music,” Alonso said, adding that whether it’s instrumental or whether or not audiences understand lyrics, the music is moving. “There really is a song for every sentiment, from love to lost love. Whether you speak the language or not, you can feel what the singer is singing about. It’s akin to country music.”

And then there’s the sheer musicality of it.

“We play the most demanding, technically challenging, exciting and complex music,” Alonso said. “We elevate mariachi into an artform, bringing a level of complexity that didn’t exist 50 years ago. Mariachi is for everyone. That was the one thing that Nati tried to instill in all of his listeners, all over the United States and South America — and even places like Croatia, Belgium and Japan. When people go see this performance, it does resonate with that multicultural demographic that represents the United States. One of Nati’s profound philosophies was that the music is for everyone.”