The musical style began to take on national prominence in the first half of the 20th century, with its promotion at presidential inaugurations and on the radio in the 1920s.

[2] Song styles performed with mariachi include rancheras, corridos, cumbias, boleros, ballads, sones, huapangos, jarabes, danzones, joropos, pasodobles, marches, polkas, waltzes and chotís.

This was a common explanation on record jackets and travel brochures but was disproven with the appearance of documents that showed that the word existed before this invasion:[7] in 1981, a letter written by Catholic priest Cosme Santa Ana to the archbishop was discovered in the archives of a church, where he complains about the noise as well as the drinking and gambling antics of the "mariachis" and dated in 1852, long before the French occupation.

[8] Prior to the arrival of the Spanish, indigenous music was played with rattles, drums, flutes, and conch-shell horns as part of religious celebrations.

In addition to instruments, the Spanish introduced the concept of musical groups—which, in the colonial period, generally consisted of two violins, a harp, and various guitars.

Early mariachi players did not look like those of today; they played only string instruments such as guitars and harps and dressed in typical peasant clothing: white pants and shirts with huarache sandals.

One variety was the salon orchestras called orquestas típicas that performed in more rural settings, notably in traje de charro outfits.

The traje de charro outfit is widely considered to be one of the two major changes that occurred during the Golden Age, the other being the introduction of trumpets.

[14] Traje de charro is heavily inspired by cowboys and features very symbolic sombreros, tight fitting pants, ruffled shirts, and jackets with heavy embroidery and embellishments throughout all the pieces.

Groups began to wander and play for a fee, which obliged them to incorporate other music into their repertoires, including waltzes and polkas.

The music also gained attention in Mexico City when a wealthy hacienda family brought an early mariachi from Cocula to play for President Porfirio Díaz in 1905.

For example, most son jaliscense songs were longer than the standard three-and-a-half minutes of the then-standard 78 rpm record, forcing the shortening of tunes.

Around the same time, the popularity of jazz and Cuban music introduced the trumpet into mariachi, pushing the violins into second place and in some cases, replacing the harp.

After the Revolution, the charreada became a national sport in Mexico and rings were constructed specifically for them, followed by professional charro associations.

The group also expanded, adding trumpets, violins and even a classical guitar to become a kind of orchestra, keeping the traditional son/mariachi base while integrating new musical ideas and styles.

Mariachi musicians fill the plaza to solicit gigs, from individual songs for passers-by to being hired for events such as weddings and baptisms.

In 2010, the government renovated the plaza to make it more tourist-friendly, adding new paving, gardens, police, security cameras, painted facades, and a museum dedicated to mariachi and tequila.

Although mariachis can be hired in Mexico City over the phone or on the internet, many people still prefer to come to the plaza, hear the musicians and haggle over the price.

[4] Vocal style emphasizes operatic qualities, and instrumental performance demonstrates a level of virtuosity that reflects advanced musical training.

[21] Most songs are about machismo, love, betrayal, death, politics, revolutionary heroes and even animals and country life from the genre's origins as rural son music.

This innovation began in 1966 by Canadian priest Jean Marc Leclerc and it moved from a small church in Cuernacava in the 1960s to the Cuernavaca Cathedral.

[34] Once school programs were limited to border areas such as San Antonio and Tucson, but they have spread across the southwest and into other parts of the United States, especially since the 1990s.

Professional groups such as Mariachi Cobre, which regularly performs at Disney World, also spend time teaching in public schools.

[38] Other innovations in the United States have been the incorporation of styles of artists such as Elvis Presley, Freddy Fender, Glenn Miller, Marty Robbins, and Johnny Cash, as well as the heavy-metal mariachi band Metalachi.

Mariachi Mujer has performed with Mexican artists such as Vikki Carr, Pablo Montero, Gerardito Fernandez and Nydia Rojas.

She posted a video in which she appears singing one of the songs from the album, "Death of Love", next to a group of mariachis in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco.

[1] These women-led mariachis or musicians faced misogyny for taking on a style of music that was considered to be male-dominated space coming from the machismo ideology.

[1] To embrace their own machismo form, these female groups would use their femininity and beauty to find success, singing songs about independence, life, heart, and the suffrage movement.

[1][43] These female groups adopted the same traje de charro attire that the men but added long skirts and removed the sombreros.

They made sure to keep their image clean by not drinking or playing late at night in order to make the American public respect mariachi.