At the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle, soaring ceilings and geometric stained glass windows surround a sanctuary where roughly 3,500 devotees gather. The church has long functioned as the heart of the Catholic community in the Rio Grande Valley. Even with social distancing precautions in place, the faithful remain present at the house of worship: when its limited allotment of indoor seats is filled, attendees sit outside on a terrace fitted with speakers, while others watch the livestreamed mass from home.

Since 1985, visitors from around the world have made the pilgrimage to San Juan to hear the stylings of the Basilica’s famous mariachi group. Hailing from the Valley and from Nuevo León, Mexico, the thirteen members, clad in traditional embroidered regalia trimmed with silver-and-gold botonaduras, sing and play devotional music year-round. Christmas carols, pastorelas, Easter songs, and popular hymns are given mariachi arrangements for the bilingual liturgy by musical director Francisco Morales. “One Day at a Time, Sweet Jesus,” composed in 1974 by Marijohn Wilkin and Brownsville native Kris Kristofferson, is a Basilica favorite, known in its Spanish-language adaptation as “Un día a la vez.” Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the group performed in nine masses every weekend. Now they sing for three masses each Sunday, with some of them appearing in alternate weeks; the spacious church allows them to perform with a safe distance between themselves and far from worshippers too. Because of travel restrictions, only the six choir members who live on the U.S. side of the border are available to play, so the musicians currently hesitate to describe themselves as a traditional mariachi, Morales emphasizes. Still, they sing. Even a pandemic can’t stop the music.

This article originally appeared in the January 2021 issue of  Texas Monthly with the headline “Divine Sounds.”  Subscribe today.

Mariachi choir members Cecilia Chavez, Ana Tirado, Victor Fortuna, Genero Fortuna, Francisco Morales, and Arturo Hernandez with their instruments at the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle in San Juan on October 18, 2020.
In the early eighties, the Basilica was a shrine known as Our Lady of San Juan del Valle. The shrine’s leadership wanted to establish a mariachi choir to celebrate a Catholic mass and invited a youth choir from Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, to perform twice a month. The mariachi mass’s popularity grew, as did attendance at the shrine. It eventually expanded into its designation as a basilica, and the mariachi choir membership increased in tandem: at its peak, the group had eighteen musicians. Pictured here are mariachi members Cecilia Chavez, Ana Tirado, Victor Fortuna, Genaro Fortuna, Francisco Morales, and Arturo Hernández.
Photograph by Brenda Bazán
The exterior of the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle, in San Juan, on October 18, 2020.
Photograph by Brenda Bazán
Arturo Hernández sings and plays guitar and vihuela.
Photograph by Brenda Bazán
Ana Tirado, violin and vocals.
Photograph by Brenda Bazán
The congregation and the choir have diminished in size during the pandemic, as social distancing practices require the Basilica to cordon off half of its seating. At the moment, the space is missing its large, magnificent sound.
Photograph by Brenda Bazán
Musicians who typically perform at other churches in the Rio Grande Valley have been recruited to fill in for the missing mariachi choir members, including Genaro Fortuna, on the guitarrón, and his son, Victor, on trumpet.
Photograph by Brenda Bazán
A small offering.
A small offering.
Photograph by Brenda Bazán
Francisco Morales, the choir director, writes the mariachi hymns and fills in on vocals, guitar, and even the church organ when needed.
Photograph by Brenda Bazán
Victor Fortuna and his trumpet. Historically preceded by smaller strumming troubadour groups that played corridos and ballads, mariachi groups evolved to accompany more raucous festivities and became popular in mid-1800s Mexico.
Photograph by Brenda Bazán
After 35 years, two of the original members of the youth choir are still part of the weekly ritual. Arturo Hernández, pictured here, and choir director Francisco Morales were among the young musicians who traveled every other week to perform during Sunday mass.
Photograph by Brenda Bazán
During the pandemic, members of the parish can sit outdoors and still enjoy the music.
Photograph by Brenda Bazán
Cecilia Chavez, violin and vocals.
Photograph by Brenda Bazán
The Blessed Sacrament Chapel at the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle on October 18, 2020.
Photograph by Brenda Bazán
Although the Basilica's group features some traditional European orchestral instruments (violins, trumpets), no mariachi is complete without the guitarrón (played here by Genaro Fortuna) and the higher-pitched vihuela.
Photograph by Brenda Bazán