The groups educational background ranges from a high school student, currently enrolled university students, as well as educators who hold bachelors degrees and multiple educational credentials. The group introduced the modern sound of a second trumpet to mariachi music. The mariachi group has played in more than one hundred films, and has recorded 115 records featuring distinctive sones, polkas, pasos dobles, danzones, boleros and more. Pepe Villa, the founding director, died in 1986 at the age of 71. During the of workshops, adults and children perfect their skills as musicians and dancers.
Music instruction focuses on techniques of violin, vihuela, guitarr n, trumpet, and guitar.
Folkl rico dance workshops are taught by Maestro Rafael Zamarripa and cover rhythms and styles from many regions of Mexico. The workshops culminate in a grand performance on-stage as part of the Mariachi Concerts. The San Jos Civic Auditorium is bedecked with paper roses for the occasion, and thousands of faithful participants watch as a costumed procession in colorful garb opens the ceremonies. A highlight is a mariachi chorus and a re-enactment of the encounter between the Indian Juan Diego and the Virgin of Guadalupe. After the mass, the mariachi leads a procession to Guadalupe River Park, three blocks away, site of the Mariachi Festival.