Movie Review–Una última y nos vamos

While I’m not a big fan of Mexican produced movies, I am an aficionado of mariachi music and this movie really made my day!

Una última y nos Vamos is about a mariachi conjunto, Tierras Rojas, from Jalisco that has been accepted as a finalist in the national Mariachi contest in Mexico City. They had applied for consideration every year for the past 20 years, so some members of the group are a bit long in the tooth and know it’s their last shot at glory. The grand prize is a sizable cash amount and the privilege of singing Las Mañanitas to La Virgen de Guadalupe at the Basilica on her name day, December 12, quite an honor.

The characters are flawed and the trip from the agave plantation to Mexico City is fraught with peril. At each seemingly insurmountable obstacle, I found myself rooting for their ultimate success just as much as the townsfolk. It’s hard not to love the underdog. Interestingly enough, one of the contest judges happened to be Jose Alfredo Jimenez Junior whose father inspired our family’s trip to Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato a few months ago.

There were all sorts of lovely wholely Mexican details, like the altar at the carniceria, metiche abuelitas, the barber who imbibes liberally from his flask making haircuts past noon hazardous to your health, the chocolate (illegally imported) van, the brawl at the quinceanera, and several phenomenal performances by mariachi.

So if you are looking for something that makes you shout VIVA MEXICO, this is the movie I recommend.

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