1. : a small, strolling, Mexican band consisting usually of trumpeters, guitarists, and violinists. also : a musician belonging to such a band. often used before another noun. 2.

Mariachi is a traditional Mexican music and a fundamental element of Mexican culture. Traditional Mariachi groups, made up of two or more members, wear regional costumes adapted from the charro costume and interpret a broad repertoire of songs on stringed instruments.

The music originated in the center-west of Mexico. Most claims for its origin lie in the state of Jalisco but neighboring states of Colima, Nayarit, and Michoacán have also claimed it.

The mariachi orchestra emerged in the late 1700s or early 1800s in west-central Mexico. The word mariachi may have come from the now-extinct language of the Coca Indians, but both the word's etymology and the early history of the form and its followers are unknown.