My first job was as a truck driver; a teamster. One summer between classes I went down to the teamster’s hiring hall because someone told me I could make some money that summer. I got on right away and I started loading and unloading trucks.

The money was so good that I didn’t go back to school for a while. I ended up driving a truck working for Delta and Consolidated Freightways.

I was such a small guy then that I probably weighed only about 115lbs. I had to figure out innovative ways to move the cargo. I had to deliver carpets, barrels of oil, and other heavy stuff. I used to tie one end of a rope around a carpet, and the other hand around a telephone pole, and then drive off to remove it from the truck.


I Quit My Day Job to Backup Linda Ronstadt

I always enjoyed photography a lot and worked at a custom photo lab. That was Calypso color labs in Santa Clara. I don’t know if they are still there or not.

But music kept getting in the way because even by then I was playing mariachi. When I hired on it was with mariachi Mixtlan, and we’re going to Tucson to do a very special job as a backup to Linda Ronstadt.

The year before we had won the mariachi competition and the group that one got to back her up on some songs. Plus, we would open the show. At the last minute, the Calypso color lab wouldn’t let me go.

Linda had already bought us these $1,000.00 leather suits that were just gorgeous. We had been rehearsing for months, and I kept reminding the Calypso people that I would be away for a week.

At the last minute they said no, and I had to quit!

I made the right choice. That was around 1982. I had already been playing mariachi for about five years.


A Gringo Learns the Art of Mariachi

Music had always been a part of my life even when I was driving a truck. I was playing with a Latin orchestra at the starlight ballroom, and actually paid my way through college by playing on weekends.

I played with various Latin orchestras and the music just kind of caught me that I even went to Mexico to learn the music firsthand.

I love the rhythms, the melodies, and the challenge of trying to capture the nuances. I love trying to get the vibrato just right, and attacking the notes and getting that tonguing to work precisely. It’s an ever – ending struggle.

Since I wasn’t born in Mexico all those songs are not in my head. You probably have thousands of rock and roll melodies that you recognize from just listening to the radio. I didn’t have that. It’s taken me years to try to catch up.

Our group probably plays several thousand songs, and if one or two of the people in the group play it, all of us can. It’s not really memorizing. It’s getting to know your instrument well enough, and understanding your pitches. If you know the melody in your head and know your instrument will enough you can play a song instantaneously.

It’s like a jazz player taking off on a solo. He knows his instrument so well that he is using his instrument to interpret the things that are going on in his head.

A lot of the classical musicians in Mexico also play mariachi because it’s challenging.


I Spend a Year Studying Music in Mexico

My first trip there was in the nineteen seventies other than going there for short times while I was a child.

Veracruz is the sister city of San Jose, so our whole mariachi group went there for carnival. We performed in the parades, and we were down there for quite awhile. We came back through Guadalajara. I think we actually made the trip twice. I think we got to go a year to later. But after that first trip I got a taste of Mexico. I was so fascinated that I came home, quit my truck driving job, and took off down to Veracruz.

I drove down in my car, and I think I stayed down there about a year. Guadalajara, Mexico City, and Veracruz where the places I lived. I tried to explore as much of Mexico as I could afford to by driving around. I couldn’t work legally. I got in trouble once for playing when somebody saw me getting paid.

You know I’ve always been slow at language. I failed French in high school. I understand a lot of Spanish but I’m not fluent except when it comes to music and food.

On that first trip I didn’t know Spanish it all. Food, gas, bathrooms… everything was so different. Mexico is our neighbor but it’s more foreign then most European countries.

Even though I couldn’t speak much Spanish, people like the fact that I was interested in the music; it was a compliment. People took me under their wing and helped me a lot. I got to play with some good groups while I was down there.


I Work as an Unofficial International “Diplomat”

I was about 21 or 22 when I was down there.  While I was living in Veracruz, I was smart enough to go to the Mexican – American chamber of commerce where I knew a fellow named John Zamora who was the president.  He gave me a diplomatic pouch of letters to give to the president of Veracruz, as well as a letter of introduction.  So I was like a diplomat carrying this stuff to Veracruz. It got me through all of the roadblocks, road checks in Mexico.

At the time they were getting ready to change presidents, so things were pretty scary; there were a lot of soldiers in the towns, and they would search my car.  As soon as they saw the diplomatic pouch and my letter they would whisk me right on through.

When I delivered the diplomatic pouch to Veracruz they thought it would be nice to get me a place to stay for free.  For six months, I had a little office with a kitchen, bath, bedroom that was right near the beach.  I could practice my trumpet.  I practiced my Spanish and made a lot of new friends.


Why I Read the History of Mexico “About 100 Times”

The one thing I really missed were books in English.  None of the bookstores in town had anything written in English after about six months I was hungry to read.

One day I was walking down a street and there was a young lady carrying a book in English!

I went running up to her and said: “my name is John.  Is that book in English?”

I think I scared her but she handed me the book which turned out to be a history of Mexico, and I read it about 100 times while I was down there.  At the time I really knew my history of Mexico.

She and I became friends; I took her out to dinner and gave her a tour of the city.  She was a tourist and during those days there were very few tourists in Veracruz.

Veracruz is the big city in the area; it’s on the eastern coast and it’s famous for seafood

Then I found a friend who wanted to speak English so we would give each other lessons.  But when the money ran out I had to get back.

The very first time I went to Veracruz with mariachi Los Lupenos, we were all invited to the presidential palace, and they gave us the key to the city.  A few months later when I went back to Veracruz they really did give me the key to the city: they gave me a house to live in and made sure I was well taken care of.

They knew that I was there to study the music, and not just mariachi music.  The other music’s they have a lot of Veracruz are wonderful such as the Rocha music and a marimba bands.  Even the flying men of Popotla would come into town.

One day a friend took me up north of Veracruz and I could hear this music that was very jungle like.  There was a tall pole and the flying men were just starting their performance.  There were very few people around; it’s really a religious performance.  It’s in an area that is thousands of years old.


There Were Only Two Gold Porsche 912’s In Guadalajara: Mine and Pele’s

While I was in Mexico I was driving a 1967 Porsche 912. It was practically brand new. As a truck driver had a good job that paid well. In fact, the money was better than I’m doing today. With overtime I was able to earn enough money to take off for a year.

I bought this Bahama gold Porsche 912 and I still have it.  It just needs new carburetors.  I’ve kept it original.

The only other Porsche I saw in Mexico belong to Pele, the famous soccer star.  I ran into him and Guadalajara.  His car was practically the same color as mine, and we were both surprised to see another Porsche.  We stopped and exchanged a few words but I didn’t know who we was it the time.

But then when he drove off and said Pele on the license plate!



My Most “Challenging and Fun Job:” The Mexican Heritage Corporation

The most challenging and fun job has been working at the Mexican heritage corporation for the past fourteen years.  I never missed a day.  Every day I would go and visit different schools; I was writing music, planning the curriculum. I had fourteen teachers who were trustworthy and always showed up.  They were all saddened when this all ended.  We spent many years watching these kids grow and become successful.

A lot of these kids were probably more destined to be and gangs.  When we first started the whole mariachi was in a gang.  By the end of the first semester and they had all gotten out of it.

After every twelve week session, we would do a concert in the theater. We would charge $5.00, and always fill up the theater.  We had a jazz class going on, storytelling, things for parents and children.  We tried a number of different things.  Unfortunately when the new president and CEO came and she got rid of it all.

People were saying that was the one thing we’re doing right offering all these classes.


After 14 Years, a Disappointing Change of Direction

So I lost my job teaching and now I’m a bus driver.  I haven’t really looked for a new job.  I kept thinking that this would come back; but the board would get rid of this new person and replace her with someone who is interested in the arts.

The other day a board member talked with me and asked me if I would come back.  I told him: “no, not as long as she is in charge of the center.”

That’s how strongly I feel about this issue.

This lady hates kids, and she has made it very clear that this is no longer a community center even though the community paid for it.  The committee doesn’t get it, the board doesn’t get it and I don’t think she’ll be there much longer.

She was to turn it into: “the Lincoln center of the west.” End but it’s only one theater; the Lincoln center has 36 theaters plus the school of music.  It’s a multi – billion dollar complex.  With one little 500-seat theater this lady has dreams of turning it into the Lincoln center of the west.  She wants to bring in high – end performances.  She would be charging $150.00 to $200.00 a seat, and the community can’t afford that.

She claimed to the paper that my classes were costing the Mexican heritage center $320,000.00 a year.  But I was the one who did the books and happen to know that we made money every time because these were mostly tuition-based, and if the teachers done it for free then the class was free.  The tuitions were so low, that it would be just enough to pay the teacher.  I don’t know why she is lying; she has her own agenda.


I Play with the “Father of Mariachi-Style Trumpet”

When I was playing with mariachis San Jose, I played with Miguel Martinez.  He is the father of mariachi style trumpet.  He invented it way back in 1939.  He’s written a lot of the polkas that I’m sure you would recognize.

We managed to get him a position as artist – in – residents at villa Montalvo.  We paid for his wife and him to come up; they had a cabin to live in, and he wrote music for six months.  That was all done through the Mexican heritage corporation and the grants that we wrote.

We offered him a job with our mariachi so that he could keep playing.  He was a trumpet player with the most famous mariachi in the world.  He was so easy and nice to work with.  We would walk in and all of the old Mexican people would recognize him.  “They’ve got Miguel Martinez!”

It was just a wonderful treat to have him.  I chose to be his personal driver for six months.  Whenever they needed to go anywhere, I would go get him and his wife.


Mariachi California

Today I belong to mariachi California.  I’ve played with a number of troupes over the years, and I even formed my own group when I first started, because I was so bad!

A bunch of us got together and formed our own group, practiced, and we started sounding pretty good.  We started doing very well on weekends; we were the in thing to hire in San Jose. We were called mariachi Aztlan.  The reason we called it that was that Aztlan was of mythical place to the north that had everything you would need to have a wonderful life.  We figured that must be this area so that’s how we got our name.

We formed that first group back in 1976.  We stayed together for a few years, and those people are still playing.  I went on to play with a number of other groups in San Jose.  Finally I got in to a group of mariachis who were all Mexican nationals.  I got good enough where I could go into the cantinas and know all the songs.

There are perhaps thousands of mariachi songs.  Every week we do lots of gigs.  Last weekend for example we did five.  I’ve played with groups in Hawaii, Chicago, and Guadalajara.  When we flew down to Guadalajara, it was for a Mexican airline.  We took off from San Jose, flew down to Guadalajara, we were paid for the whole time.  We weren’t allowed to get off the plane because we had no passports.  The plane just turn around, took off, and came back to San Jose.

That was quite a champagne party on board.

There have been jobs in Alaska, but I’ve never been to Europe.  I’ve been all through Canada.

Once, two friends who lived in Saratoga talked me into riding bicycles all the way across Canada.  We spent the summer doing that, writing about 100 miles a day.  We went up past Crater Lake, across all the states of Canada, and it was very interesting.