page_title: Plaza Garibaldi
section_title: Mariachi mecca
hierarchical_section_title: Plaza Garibaldi / Mariachi mecca
caption_attribution_description: Español: Monumento al Mariachi en Plaza Garibaldi, en la delegación Cuauhtémoc de la Ciudad de México, D.F., México.
context_page_description: Plaza Garibaldi is located in historic downtown Mexico City, on Eje Central between historic Calle República de Honduras and Calle República de Peru, a few blocks north of the Palacio de Bellas Artes. The original name of this plaza was Plaza Santa Cecilia, but in 1920, at the conclusion of the Mexican Revolution, it was renamed in honor of Lt. Col. Peppino Garibaldi, who joined with the Maderistas in the attack on Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, during the Revolution. The Garibaldi Metro station is named after this plaza.
  The Plaza is known as Mexico City's home of mariachi music. At all hours of the day and night, mariachi bands can be found playing or soliciting gigs from visitors to the Plaza. The Salón Tenampa, which became the home of mariachi music in Mexico City in the 1920s, is still in business on the north side of the plaza. The plaza and the neighborhoods around it are undergoing extensive renovations to halt the decades-long degeneration of the area. The plans include a remodeled plaza and extensive rework of the surrounding buildings and streets plus sidewalks, with the goal of making the area safe for visitors at all times.
context_section_description: During the Golden Age of Mexican cinema from the 1930s to the 1950s, a genre of movies called "Charro" became extremely popular. These films featured movie stars such as Tito Guízar, Jorge Negrete, José Alfredo Jiménez and Pedro Infante, who would often sing mariachi songs to their leading ladies. On one side of Plaza Garibaldi is the Salón Tenampa, which became a major nightspot in the 1920s when Cirilo Marmolejo and his mariachi band started playing there regularly. Garibaldi Plaza soon attracted other mariachi musicians, who would be paid by gentlemen to sing to their partners in the style of Marmolejo or the Charro movie stars.
  The popularity of Charro movies has waned and Marmolejo died some time ago, but mariachi bands can still be found here day and night. These musicians play for the patrons of the bars, nightclubs and pulquerias that still surround the plaza, as well as for passers-by. Mariachi bands also line up on Eje Central in front of the plaza to solicit gigs from passing motorists. Over the years other types of bands, such as trios, jarochos (music groups from Veracruz), and even groups playing modern music, have joined the mariachis on the plaza. The best time to experience the plaza is on a Friday or Saturday night from 11:00 p.m. onwards.
caption: Monument to mariachi
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-P43", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2007:01:13 09:52:02", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "340", "Image CustomRendered": "Normal", "Image ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Auto", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Landscape", "Image Contrast": "Normal", "Image Saturation": "Normal", "Image Sharpness": "Normal", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 3, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Make": "SONY", "Thumbnail Model": "DSC-P43", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail DateTime": "2007:01:13 09:52:02", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2440", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "20758", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/320", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Landscape Mode", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:01:13 09:52:02", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:01:13 09:52:02", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "47/16", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, compulsory flash mode, red-eye reduction mode, return light not detected", "EXIF FocalLength": "5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1280", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "960", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed"}