The Silvestre Vargas Museum

The Silvestre Vargas Museum commemorated the 15th anniversary of Silvestre Vargas' death on October 7, 1997 in Tecalitlán, Jalisco. For this celebration, the late maestro's body was exhumed and cremated, and his ashes placed in an urn in a sanctuary created inside the museum.

Silvestre Vargas--widely considered the most important individual in the history of mariachi music--died and was buried in Guadalajara in 1985. Until last year, large groups of mariachi musicians gathered every October 7th at his grave in Recinto de le Paz cemetery to honor him.

The world's first and only mariachi museum, the Museo Silvestre Vargas, was inaugurated in temporary quarters in 1997. Last October the new, permanent museum building was inaugurated. The museum houses artifacts related to Silvestre Vargas and his mariachi.

As part of this year's events, Julio Martínez (father of Mariachi Vargas' harpist) displayed an exhibit of some 300 phonograph recordings from his collection. Lectures on mariachi music, given by Cornelio García and Jonathan Clark, were well attended.

Thematical tour of the Museum:

Mariachi Vargas en Tecalitlán
Mariachi Vargas goes to the capital
The tours
The radio
The recordings
The movies
The singers
Rubén Fuentes
La apparel
The instruments
Recognition
Mariachi Vargas at 100 years