Mariachis on Mars (After Gregg Barrios)

Sonic Terrains in Latinx Art
April 30th — July 30th, 2022
VPAM, Los Angeles, CA

8 Channel Sound Installation
Artists’ Archival Collection
Custom Speakers, Video

In 1976 a group of Mexican American high school students in Crystal City, Texas, a small farming and ranching community, staged a futuristic rock opera, Stranger in a Strange Land, for their peers and parents. Produced under the direction of Texas-born filmmaker, poet, playwright, and educator, Gregg Barrios, the students’ sci-fi theater drew upon a wide range of direct and indirect influences, including a U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report, Stranger in One’s Land (1970), the novel the film The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) was based on, and Crystal City’s history of walkouts and radical chicano politics. 

In 2016, Sonic Insurgency Research Group began corresponding with Barrios about his work and experiences in Crystal City and beyond. Under Barrios’ guidance, we digitized a portion of his archive, including 8mm film from a rehearsal of the play.

Mariachis on Mars (after Greg Barrios) features an eight-channel experimental sonic documentary played from a series of custom speakers arranged like floats in a parade. The sonic documentary attempts to tell one potential story about the students’ play through archival interviews with Gregg Barrios and Severita Lara. It concludes with a mariachi rendition of David Bowie’s sci-fi ballad Space Oddity. Arranged and performed by Mariachi Estrella de Chicago, the new culturally specific version of the glam rock classic opens the felt politics of the senses to new sonic potentials. The reimagined song, designed to invoke the image of Bowie as an extraterrestrial who crash lands in Aztlán, is a direct homage to Barrios who sadly passed away in the summer of 2022.

We had been in contact with Barrios regularly since 2016, working on various iterations of this project. Mariachis on Mars (after Greg Barrios) is dedicated to his memory, as well as the students who worked with him all those years ago on Stranger in a Strange Land. 

Mariachis on Mars (after Gregg Barrios), an 8 channel omni-directional sound sculpture, features archival interviews with Gregg Barrios and Severita Lara with experimental sound composition and a performance of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” by Chicago-based Mariachi ensemble Mariachi Estrellas de Chicago.

Arrangement by Giovanni Garcia
Recorded at Jamdek Studios by Doug Malone, Chicago, IL

Performers
Mario Hernandez — Guitarron
Camilo Rincon — Guitar, Vocals
Sebastian Oseguera — Vihuela, Vocals
Angelica Miranda — Violin
Brenden Perez — Violin
Zyania Chavez — Violin
Giovanni Garcia — Trumpet, Lead Vocals
Danielle Pilate — Trumpet
Jamie Ruiz — Trumpet