[8] As with his Spanish Students, Curti dressed his Mexican band in costumes, choosing the charro cowboy outfit.

"[11] He was an orchestra leader, composer, educator at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música (Mexican National Conservatory of Music), xylophonist, violinist, mandolinist and author of a mandolin method.

[16] The imitators' use of mandolins helped to generate enormous public interest in an instrument previously relatively unknown in the United States.

[3] Curti took his knowledge of the elaborate costumed performances he had participated in and organized since coming to the United States, and created a new show in Mexico, what became the Orquesta Típica Mexicana (Mexican Typical Orchestra).

[11] The Mexican Typical Orchestra was originally conceived by the salterio player Encarnación García and bandolónist Andrés Díaz de la Vega but its creation was consolidated in the hands of its director and founder, xylophone player and composer Carlos Curti, in August 1884.

[23] The Mexican Typical Orchestra played the following five works during the third part of programming:[8][20] This concert was attended by the president of Mexico, General Porfirio Díaz, who at the time named the group "Orquesta Típica Mexicana".

[8][23] The president was interested in supporting the group, because he had issues during his election campaign in which his opponents used folk music as propaganda against him.

[24] The "Aires Nacionales Mexicanos" (Mexican National Tunes) put together by Curti along with ethnic instruments like the salterio impressed the General.

[23] Over the next three years the band made several tours; the first to the United States, starting for the Universal Exhibition in New Orleans and continuing to New York and several cities in the US.

His later life was marked by tragic events: he suffered financial difficulties and his wife Carmen shot herself on January 28, 1914, after he had lost his job at the Waldorf-Astoria.