That’s the New Mexico National Guard 44th Army Band, MariachI Adelante.
The band was one of several featured performers at Friday’s Independence Day celebration at the Santa Fe Plaza, during the annual Pancakes on the Plaza event.
The trumpet player in the group, Dwight Goetz, described the band’s role as the Guard’s musical ambassadors.
"This is the perfect marriage of our military service and our culture," Goetz said.
"We grew up in New Mexico and we grew up around this music, and so it's great for us to be able to share this and to serve, especially on a day like today."
The Guard Mariachis performed several traditional tunes, including their version of the National Anthem.
Police estimated that at least a few thousand people made their way in and out of the plaza over the course of the day.
The Rotary Club of Santa Fe presents the annual event and starts serving the pancakes at about 7 a.m. They ran out of flapjacks about five hours later.
Besides the National Guard band, other performers including Una Mas Y La Chacha, the Turquoise Turners, and the Men’s Comerata.
While Mariachi Adelante was preparing to take the stage, New Mexico National Guard public affairs specialist Douglas Mallary described the group as the public face of the state guard, along with senior leadership.
As for the emergency and support work other Guardsmen are involved with, Mallary talked about the preparation for fire and flood season.
"Last year was a bad year. So basically we pulled out last year's game plan and we're following that," Mallary said.
"The biggest challenge is, when we start spinning up, if you will, getting ready for it when we know that there is a problem such as a wildfire or we're anticipating flooding, but before we actually start movement, we have to wait for the governor's declaration of an emergency. . . and then getting the volunteers in process and on station as fast as possible.
Mallary said that at that moment, there were about 40 New Mexico National Guardsman helping out near Silver City, at the site of the Trout Fire.
As for the 48th annual Pancakes on the Plaza, some 300 Rotary Club volunteers did the work of presenting this year’s event.
