SO…a friend of mine was recently at the latest store opening for Northgate, the Anaheim-based Latino supermarket for which my dad works as a troquero. They opened their 40th store in Long Beach, off of Cherry Avenue, in an area that's not exactly Latino but which is nevertheless already getting mucho business from African-American and gabacho clientele.
But the most fascinating thing about Northgate's fiesta for the occasion? The appearance of a Pepsi-sponored mariachi, down to the soda gian't ying-yang logo on each musician's charro suit. CRAZY!
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“Good mariachi,” said my friend, who was present. “Real raza, and they go around representing Pepsi.
I couldn't find much information online, and I got a million stories to edit before placing a call to Pepsi. But it seems they've been around for a couple of years, serving as ambassadors in Southern California to get more Mexicans off their Coke and toward Pepsi. And they're definitely legit: here's one incarnation singing the Javier Solís standard “Gema”–and any mariachi busting out Solís is 100 percent raza;
CRAZY!
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