Pepsi Has Its Own Official Mariachi, and It's Not Half Bad!
Photo courtesy of the Godfather Dig the logo on their suits...
SO...a friend of mine was recently at the latest store opening for Northgate, the Anaheim-based Latino supermarket for which my dad works as a troquero. They opened their 40th store in Long Beach, off of Cherry Avenue, in an area that's not exactly Latino but which is nevertheless already getting mucho business from African-American and gabacho clientele.
But the most fascinating thing about Northgate's fiesta for the occasion? The appearance of a Pepsi-sponored mariachi, down to the soda gian't ying-yang logo on each musician's charro suit. CRAZY!
"Good mariachi," said my friend, who was present. "Real raza, and they go around representing Pepsi.
I couldn't find much information online, and I got a million stories to edit before placing a call to Pepsi. But it seems they've been around for a couple of years, serving as ambassadors in Southern California to get more Mexicans off their Coke and toward Pepsi. And they're definitely legit: here's one incarnation singing the Javier Solís standard "Gema"--and any mariachi busting out Solís is 100 percent raza;
CRAZY!
Email: garellano@ocweekly.com. Twitter: @gustavoarellano.
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