Mariachi revolution

Visionary priest's 'monkeys' evolve, popularize music across U.S.

A new generation of Los Changuitos Feos musicians - (from left) Johanna Rearson, Michelle Aguilar and Carmen Alfaro - practices for a performance.

DANIEL BUCKLEY
Tucson Citizen
April 25, 2002
Introduction to mariachi
WHAT FORMER CHANGUITOS SAY

What would the Rev. Charles Rourke think of his "ugly little monkeys" now?
Thirty-eight years after he started Mariachi Los Changuitos Feos (the ugly little monkeys), the concept of youth mariachis has taken root around the country. His early crew has fanned out to become community leaders, professionals and some of the best mariachis on earth.
Visionary as he was, no doubt even Rourke, who died in 1993, never dreamed what would happen. When he started the band in 1964, it was about instilling cultural pride and human possibility in one kid at a time.
Former Tucson City Manager Joel Valdez, now a vice president with the University of Arizona, was there at the start.
"While I was superintendent of detention for the juvenile court - the old Mother Higgins on the freeway - my chaplain was Father Charles Rourke," Valdez recalls. "He would play the piano there at the detention center. And I got to talking about mariachis, as I always liked it. I was challenging the Father about playing Mexican music. He said, 'Well, give me the music.' I said, 'It's not written. It comes from the heart, handed down from father to child."
The charismatic priest decided to put together a summer CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) mariachi group, based on a group of orphans called Los Toritos he'd seen in a diocese in Guadalajara. Former state senator Frank Felix was among the early recruits. He entered, in his words, "by duress."
"I was encouraged to participate because it would improve my social skill and calm me down some," he says wryly. "We had too much energy, and they wanted to refocus it to a more constructive end.
"I think he (Father Rourke) did a lot during those days, and certainly being a jazz musician he felt that music could soothe the beast and provide the discipline that it takes, with practice and all that. I think the best thing I took away from it is that exactly - the discipline of having to practice, the teamwork that it takes to be in a group like that, the patience of dealing with multiple personalities, different egos."
Retired Air National Guard mechanic Bob Bourland has three kids of his own in Los Changuitos. Bourland, who played guitar, heard there was a priest who was giving guitar lessons. He and his buddies figured they could learn from him and joined. Soon, he had new adventures and new responsibilities.
"I was actually the first manager, which meant I had a pickup truck and was able to haul things," he says. "I went with Father Rourke down to Nogales and we brought some sombreros - the tourist types. That's what we had for our first shot out. Then we bought the sash that we used for a tie. The rest was just white shirt, black pants and dark shoes. I've still got my sombrero."
Valdez remembers the name coming from Rourke calling the kids his "ugly little monkeys." Bourland's take is that one of Rourke's assistants, John Ivanov, came up with Los Changuitos Feos.
"To be honest, we didn't like the name," Bourland says. "We wanted a more grown up name, but they liked it a lot so it ended up sticking with us."
Trumpeter David Ruiz, now a physician in Washington state, was recruited when his mom, Mary Ruiz, heard of the program through another Chango, her nephew, Jerry Gay. David's younger brother, Mack Ruiz, now a violinist with the renowned Mariachi Cobre and one of the leading U.S. mariachi educators, was dragged in as well although he was more interested at the time in playing music of the Beatles.
"I spent four great years in high school, as well as my junior high years, as part of the group," David Ruiz recalls. "We traveled all over the United States. I remember playing for President Richard Nixon's inaugural and performing in Mexico for the president of Mexico. We had lunch with Mayor Daley of Chicago. We had dinner with Bobby Kennedy, and did several recordings."
Soon after David Ruiz joined, Randy Carrillo, now leader of Cobre, was enlisted. And when Father Rourke heard his younger brother, Steve - currently trumpet player and lead vocalist with Cobre - could play guitar, he, too, became part of the band. And a few years later another future Cobre member, vihuela master Roberto Martinez joined.
"One of the things that really sticks out in my mind was having lunch with Mayor Daley," Martinez recalls. "At the time, big deal. He was the mayor. But by the time I got to college in a political science class I started to read a little bit about 'the Boss' and realized, 'Wow! We had lunch with this man.' "
Rourke was strict with the boys.
"He always wanted us to be the best that we could be," David Ruiz says. "One of his favorite sayings was, 'You can be cute for 30 seconds, but after that you'd better damn well be good performers.' "
Still, boys will be boys. While staying at the Commodore Hotel in New York, Rourke left the Changos to practice while he ran errands. When he got back, the boys were playing Beatles songs for the hotel staff.
"He read us the riot act about 'We're not supposed to play those types of songs,' Felix remembers. "We're Southwest folklore music buffs and that was not part of our repertoire. But the hotel staff was delighted, so that was a neat experience."
Getting the music was a struggle at first.
"What we learned from was LPs, 45s, tapes - from listening to Mariachi Vargas on tape," David Ruiz said. "We had an interesting point in time when Father Rourke brought a musician by the name of Art Pepin into the setting of the group."
Pepin was a musician with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, and to the young boys raised on Vargas' records, his arrangements didn't sound right.
"Now, when I look back on him, he was probably 10 years ahead of most mariachi arrangements in term of the style of music, the chord structure, the transitions that he put into the piece and a lot of how he did a lot of his arranging for brass with the violins," Ruiz says.
When word came that Rourke was being transferred to New Mexico, the boys' hearts sank. Rourke entrusted the group to Randy Carrillo, who briefly kept it going by having the mariachi rehearse in his home.
"We would move all the furniture out of the living room and they'd work there," remembers Carrillo's mom, Emma Carrillo. "Eventually they started working at the Newman Center when Father (Richard) Butler took over the group."
"Father Butler was more of a business man," says Leo Carrillo, Steve and Randy's father. "He started getting them lots of gigs, and the boys started traveling all over the place."
When Butler moved on in 1975, Joe Mendoza, the father of one of the Changuitos, took over. Mendoza spent the next 26 years leading the group until a quadruple bypass forced him to retire last year.
"At the time there was nobody taking charge of them to get bookings and keep them going - to get new blood and everything else," Mendoza says. "So I ... started doing it and got them to go all over the country."
Under Mendoza's leadership, Los Changuitos thrived as a secular group. The group took first place in competitions at early mariachi conferences around the country, did workshops in school systems in other states and even played in the inaugural parade in 1997 for President Bill Clinton. Mendoza also advised organizations around the country on how to start similar musical groups. Through Mendoza's work, Los Changuitos Feos stock as a national model rose. But to the kids, he was a mentor, a friend and an inspiration.
"He was always there saying, 'Come on, kids. Let's go! Get ready!' " says Carmen Alfaro, a senior at Tucson High who is about to graduate from the Changuitos.
Another parent, Changuitos board president Betty Villegas, took over as interim director when Mendoza retired.
Villegas hopes the group can raise money to hire a new permanent director.
Two weeks ago, the current crop of Changos was hard at work with arranger Ruben Loya, visiting Tucson from Los Angeles. As he would meticulously work with each section one at a time, imparting the nuances of style for the tunes they'll play at tonight's Mariachi Showcase Concert in the TCC Music Hall , other sections practiced their parts. The discipline, the pride and the teamwork continues 38 years after its start.
And the education continues, too. From Rourke's day, the money earned from performances by Los Changuitos Feos went into a fund, along with community donations, to award college scholarships to Changos upon completion of high school.
The kids had to keep their noses clean and study hard if they wanted to stay in the group. But the payoff is by now a considerable ongoing legacy. Los Changuitos has not only graduated top musicians, but also doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, educators, political leaders and everyday good neighbors
"We gave out $20,000 in scholarships last year," Villegas says. "So many of our kids are in college now."
If you'd like to help Los Changuitos Feos in its work, contact it at 908-2116 or through the group's Web site, www.loschanguitosfeos.org.