“I fell in love with it. I am fascinated by everything José Alfredo Jiménez and others have done. Mariachi music is the romance of tragedy and the tragedy of romance. Mariachi fills me.” (Rodri J. Rodriguez)
Her name is Guadalupe Josefina de los Milagros Rodriguez y Rodriguez Castañeda Laredo. In the world of culture and entertainment, she is known as Rodri J. Rodriguez. The length of her name, which she carried during the seven years she lived in Cuba, can be seen as a reflection of the happy yet chaotic life she led before migrating alone to Miami at seven years old.
“I was a happy, very talkative child. I would stand up in the class rooms at school and say everything that was in my mind. At that time, it was dangerous. The guerrilla commanded by Fidel Castro had taken over the government, and anyone who opposed them could suffer the consequences.
“I could easily have stood up in class and declared that Castro and the guerrillas were bad. I heard many things at home; my parents were not in favor of them,” says Rodri J. Rodriguez, founder of the Mariachi USA Festival, which will celebrate its 35th anniversary this June 8.
Her parents had to make a very difficult decision: to send their little daughter to Miami as part of Operation Peter Pan, in which the Castro government sent the children of their ‘opponents’ to the US alone, without their parents. Initially, this decision could be understood as a necessary step for the survival of both the child and her parents, but the impact it caused Rodri was lasting, with memories that she had to confront for much of her life.
“It’s hard to understand that a plane ticket would change the life of a girl who laughed and danced, who loved listening to music with her parents. When I was at the airport, I wasn’t aware of what was happening. I just thought I was going on a plane trip. Other children were crying and screaming. I questioned them, ‘Why are you crying?’ I asked. ‘We are going to travel.’ My parents had a clear memory of me on that day. Of all the children, I was the only one who said goodbye to them without any drama, waving my hands,” she says.
Although Rodri has some memory lapses, she still holds some vivid memories from those years. “I was torn away from my parents. They were very hardworking. My father was a carpenter, my mother a seamstress. We were happy,” she adds.
She arrived in Miami, where she stayed in camps until a foster family was found for her. After a few months, she was placed in Albuquerque, a place so distant and desert-like compared to what she had known until then. Her life dimmed, “they didn’t kill my spirit, but they saddened it,” she recalls.
For Rodri, that period, although painful, was fundamental in shaping the woman she became. There was no music like what she used to listen to, her foster parents were very strict, and at school, they made fun of her, saying her parents had abandoned her. Additionally, she didn’t speak English. She decided that this would not be an impediment, that all this would strengthen her despite the cost.
After school, Rodri would stay behind to study, and eventually learned English, and not only that, she became a champion of spelling bee contests. She had shown herself that she had to be firm and tenacious to achieve her aspirations and overcome obstacles. “I try to make every day a new day, refresh my spirit, and bring positivity to every person,” she says.
Seven years later, her parents, Leoncio Rodriguez and Luz Maria, managed to reach the United States, where they reunited with Rodri in Los Angeles. “It was an immediate change, difficult, but receiving all that parent love again. I listened to the old music again, and fell back in love with it. I listened to everything, classical, danzones, jazz, opera… My parents had a well-formed sense and taste in the world of art,” she adds.
She embarked on her career in the world of art, knowing it was her destiny. She took classes with great teachers and began her first steps in the art world. “My parents told me they agreed but only if I worked behind the camera, not in front of them. They knew about Hollywood’s fame,” she says.
She worked covering shows for a publication and then decided to become an event producer, not a promoter, as production gave her the freedom to control the shows. “I was shocked by the working conditions of renowned Latino artists. They would put artists like Pedro Vargas or Lucha Villa to sing one or two songs in dirty costumes. It was a total lack of respect. My first event was with Raphael at the Casa de España.
“I want to write, to touch my heart for everything I went through. I carry Mexico in my soul. I don’t seek recognition. It fills me more to know that I have also made artists and mariachis get paid what they are worth, not the crumbs they are offered. I feel like an ambassador of the world.”
Her love for Cuban and Mexican music led her to mariachi. “I fell in love with it. I am fascinated by everything José Alfredo Jiménez and others have done. Mariachi music is the romance of tragedy and the tragedy of romance. Mariachi fills me. It’s not just listening to the music; it’s seeing how it speaks to us. You have to say, ‘I am going to live mariachi,'” she says.
Among her favorite songs are ‘Si Nos Dejan,’ ‘Cien Años,’ and everything by Los Panchos. After being involved in producing countless artists and shows, Rodri needed a break. She wanted to suspend traveling, and just spend time in Los Angeles. “I told myself, ‘no one has done anything for the mariachis, considering that we are in the city with the most Mexicans in the world outside of Mexico, it’s strange that no one has done it. I was going to do it. I didn’t want to do concerts. If I was going to do something, I would do it right, with the respect and dignity that mariachi deserves. The ideal place was the Hollywood Bowl. They laughed at me when I was negotiating it, telling me to be ready to lose thousands of dollars and that only two thousand people would attend. They were right about the two thousand people, but those 2000 where those who could not come in because the event was a sold-out, 18,000 spectators, and it has been like that for 35 years,” Rodri J. Rodriguez says proudly.
For Rodri, nothing is difficult; she always finds a way. After 35 emotional years, she recalls the first as the most significant due to the challenges it presented. And the other two, in which Leoncio and Luz Maria could not attend because they had passed away. “It was difficult and very emotional not seeing them there,” she says.
But undoubtedly, she has felt their presence over the years. The memories of that girl listening to the music her father played surely crosses her mind.
“I want to write, to touch my heart for everything I went through. I carry Mexico in my soul. I don’t seek recognition. It fills me more to know that I have also made artists and mariachis get paid what they are worth, not the crumbs they are offered. I feel like an ambassador of the world,” she says.
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