About Us

As the year 2007 came to a close, the original founding members of Los Cuatro Vientos belonged to a larger mariachi ensemble that had recently dissipated due to artistic differences and other conflicts of interest.  Without a group or a venue J. Javier Enríquez, Juan G. Aguilar, Ernesto “Ernie” Ferra and David Gill decided to form Los Cuatro Vientos.

The idea behind the new ensemble was to strip the full twelve-piece mariachi ensemble down to its bare essentials, much like the mariachi ensembles of the early 1900s before Mexican radio and cinema had popularized the music throughout Mexico.  In the early pioneer ensembles, particularly Mariachi Coculense de Cirilo Marmolejo, only four musicians would play regional favorites on the harp, guitar and violins.  It wasn’t until years later when the Mexican radio station XEW began featuring mariachis that the trumpet was added to enhance sound waves on the primitive technology of the 1930s.

“Los Cuatro Vientos” was chosen as the official name of the group to reflect the indigenous concept of the Four Winds to encompass the idea of totality.  Although each is independent of each other, together they create a synergetic force in which the “fifth” or “center” Wind is created.  Likewise, each member of the group contributes unique vision and talent to create an innovative expressive outlet much stronger than either individual could create independently.  The plans were underway and Los Cuatro Vientos began recording at Aztech Studios in Tucson, Arizona in January of 2008.

Around the same time of the group’s formation, Enríquez and Aguilar had begun collaboration with visual artist John Jota Leaños and composer Cristóbal Martínez on a new Day of the Dead animated opera entitled Imperial Silence: Una Ópera Muerta of which “Act One: Los ABCs” was featured in the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.  Since the beginning of the collaboration, Leaños had expressed a desire to have a small ensemble perform original music written by the four for the stage version of the opera.

Two original songs were recorded on the group’s debut album entitled Lamento Desaparecido.  The first was “Corrido de Pat Tillman” inspired by the Arizona Cardinals football player who met his tragic demise due to “friendly-fire” in Afghanistan.  The second was “Lamento Desaparecido”, a track written independently of the opera addressing issues of border-crossers in the deserts of Arizona and Texas.  Both were included in Imperial Silence and have received much acclaim for their originality, content, and for the dances accompanying them choreographed by renowned dancer/choreographer Joel Valentín Martínez.

After the debut of Imperial Silence at Cal State University-Monterey Bay and the Brava Theatre and Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco, David Gill decided to break from the group to pursue other interests and shortly after, Sulema Castillo joined Los Cuatro Vientos adding the much needed female perspective to the group.  Since then the group has continued to present the opera for various venues including UCLA, the MACLA in San José, El Museo del Barrio in New York City, UC Santa Cruz, UC Riverside and the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.  In May of 2012, the group is scheduled to perform at the Chicago Contemporary Museum of Art.

Currently, Los Cuatro Vientos is in the process of recording two new albums.  The first is an Untitled CD featuring all-new original compositions by Enríquez and Aguilar.  In this new CD, Los Cuatro Vientos extends its musicianship beyond mariachi music and includes other influences and styles in its repertoire.  The second album, entitled La Misa de Los Cuatro Vientos is the group’s interpretation of the movements of the Mariachi Mass played every Sunday at St. Augustine’s Cathedral in Tucson. 

In addition to these two recordings Los Cuatro Vientos is also collaborating with opera-composer Hector Armienta from San José, California on an original tune called “Digame”, independent-film producer and director William Ackerley on La Diabla y Javier, as well as John Jota Leaños on a new animated web series entitled Frontera! Animated Histories of the Southwest Borderlands.