MADELEINE BRAND, Host:
Corey Takahashi reports.
COREY TAKAHASHI: When the musicians of Mariachi Plaza have no customers to perform for, they'll stroll the sidewalks and find ways of entertaining themselves.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARIACHI BAND: (singing) Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
TAKAHASHI: The plaza is surrounded by Mexican restaurants, music stores and budget housing - an entire mariachi infrastructure crammed within a couple blocks. But the mariachis say the main thing missing is work. Some are only getting one-third of the gigs they were a few years ago. A mariachi named Luis Molina says the plaza's a buyer's market, but customers should be careful.
BRAND: Most people just trust them, you know, and they trust them by the way they talk, by the way they look, and that's about it.
TAKAHASHI: He says some bogus mariachis just learn a handful of songs, then pass themselves off as pros.
BRAND: Giving the people the wrong image of mariachi. Mariachi's more than just knowing a couple songs. We're decent people, and we carry this culture throughout generations.
TAKAHASHI: Mariachi Plaza's facing economic forces from outside of the community, too.
U: The next stop is Mariachi Plaza station.
TAKAHASHI: In November, L.A. opened a new Metro train route that connects the once-isolated plaza to downtown. Janet Favela, an organizer with the East L.A. Community Corporation, says new investment in this area has raised rents and brought more scrutiny to its many street vendors. Favela says the mariachis could be a target of quality-of-life campaigns.
BRAND: It's been OK so far. They've been here for at least 20, 30 years. But like, will it continue to be OK?
TAKAHASHI: Luis Molina still stops by the plaza, but like a small but growing number of mariachis, he's also devised a Web strategy to book gigs.
BRAND: The way that I do it is, I go through the Internet, but they're all price shoppers, and that's when instead of helping, the technology of the Internet is actually not helping so much in that sense, where I have to lower so much the prices.
TAKAHASHI: Vanessa Canchola discovered Molina's band, Mariachi Estrella, on the Web. She works as an assistant at the manufacturing company L.A. Lighting. She was trying to find entertainment for recent company parties.
BRAND: Well, I just went to Google, and I searched mariachi, and I seen Mariachi Estrella.
TAKAHASHI: Because, you know, there's a Mariachi Plaza in Los Angeles, and some people go there. What would turn you off to that - or make you choose the Internet versus, like, picking up a mariachi on the street?
BRAND: Because I don't know anything about mariachi, so I just went to the Internet, and the Internet helped me.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
BRAND: I don't even know what you just said about the plaza. I didn't even know that.
TAKAHASHI: She didn't take the traditional route, but she got traditional results. Molina and his bandmates arrive in black charro outfits, greet the audience of factory workers, then fill this warehouse in suburban El Monte with music and dance from Mexico.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARIACHI ESTRELLA: (singing) Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
TAKAHASHI: For NPR News, I'm Corey Takahashi.