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.

However, the consensus of musical historians can answer the question, “Where did mariachi originate?” Historians place the origin of mariachi music in the western part of Mexico, likely in an area encompassing the states of Jalisco, Nayarit, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, Michoacán, and Colima.

The History of Mariachi The music that was called "mariachi" as early as the 1850s emerged from the ranches and small towns of western Mexico, particularly in the states of Jalisco, Michoacán, Nayarit, Colima, and Aguascalientes.