All-female mariachi bands are not as common as they perhaps should be.
"It's rare," said Yvonne Lopez, the director of Mariachi Rubor, which formed in 2012. Before that, some of the original members, including Lopez, played with the Arizona State University Mariachi Ensemble.
"It's becoming more popular now. So you'll see a little bit more groups, but it was traditionally not normal," Lopez said.
They’re inspiring a new generation of female mariachi musicians.
"Because we need to break barriers. There's so many women that wanted to play and they were scared. So, I feel we're paving a way and giving women new opportunities to be in a mariachi," she said.
"A lot of these women [in Mariachi Rubor], they're teachers. So, they're mariachi teachers and [they] bring programs to different schools. So it's awesome to see all these young women and little girls looking up to us and be like, ‘I want to play that or be like you guys or join your group one day, so yeah.’"
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