LOS ANGELES \u2014 Crystal Hern\u00e1ndez steadies her violin and scans the crowd from the sixth floor of SoFi Stadium as 70,000 fans stream into a Los Angeles Rams home game. Below her, blue-and-gold jerseys mix with charro suits and sombreros, and the low rumble of pregame noise swells into the opening notes of the late Ozzy Osbourne\u2019s \u201cCrazy Train\u201d reimagined through trumpets, guitarr\u00f3n and vihuela.<\/p>\n
On Hern\u00e1ndez’s right, rock guitarist Nita Strauss cuts through with an electric solo as the several-piece mariachi ensemble locked into rhythm. On the concourse, fans stop mid-step, phones raised, caught by the unlikely fusion of rock, mariachi and football.<\/p>\n
At games, it’s not unusual to hear Kendrick Lamar, Bad Bunny and Beyonc\u00e9’s music blaring through the speakers. But the Mariachi Rams are reshaping the sound of NFL game day, blending traditional Mexican music with Los Angeles\u2019 hip-hop and rock influences in a way no other team in the league does.<\/p>\n
\u201cMariachi music has so much flexibility and I think that\u2019s special because we get to show how versatile mariachi music is to the NFL audience,\u201d says Hern\u00e1ndez, who is the only woman in the NFL\u2019s first official mariachi band. She’s the daughter of Mariachi legend Jos\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez, who built the ensemble when he partnered with the Rams in 2019.<\/p>\n
In one moment, they play classic mariachi standards. In the next, they are turning Tupac Shakur\u2019s \u201cCalifornia Love\u201d into a brass-heavy anthem as a lowrider car bounces nearby while fans roar from the stands.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe things that come out of our communities, all of our communities, we all represent each other,\u201d says rapper Xzibit, who performed with the USC Marching Band at halftime during the Rams game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He says seeing the Mariachi Rams on the NFL stage speaks to how the culture moves through the city without boundaries.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be brought into something where culture is embraced on that level,\u201d Xzibit says. \u201cThat’s when you feel like you’re part of something that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n The Los Angeles Rams Mariachi Band performs before an NFL football game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, in Inglewood, Calif. Credit: AP\/Jessie Alcheh<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Jos\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez didn\u2019t land in the Mariachi Rams by accident.<\/p>\n A Rams staffer approached him several years ago with a video of a mariachi group performing at a major soccer match and asked a simple question: \u201cCould this work for football?\u201d recalled the Grammy-nominated musician and founder of Mariachi Sol de Mexico and Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles, an all-female mariachi ensemble that includes Crystal Hern\u00e1ndez.<\/p>\n Jos\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez didn’t hesitate. He believed it could work with the right musicians and musical range. What followed was the formation of a 10-member ensemble built to bridge tradition and modern Los Angeles sound, performing classic mariachi standards alongside reimagined pop and hip-hop anthems from \u201cEl Rey\u201d to Tupac’s \u201cCalifornia Love.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s pride and passion,\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez says. <\/p>\n The Los Angeles Rams Mariachi Band performs before an NFL football game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, in Inglewood, Calif. Credit: AP\/Jessie Alcheh<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The Mariachi Rams are made up of:<\/p>\n Santiago Espinoza (vihuela), Mateo Real (guitar), Joshua Gutierrez (guitarr\u00f3n), Kevin Ramirez (trumpet), Christopher Rubalcava (trumpet), Crystal Hern\u00e1ndez (violin), Adrian Arias (violin), Ricardo Rios (violin), Ricardo Cisneros (violin) and Joaquin Telles (violin).<\/p>\n Hern\u00e1ndez says his vision from the start was to reflect the city around them musically and culturally.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen they see young musicians on that jumbotron at SoFi playing songs they completely connect with, you can’t even imagine the pride they feel,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n While other NFL teams, including the Houston Texans, now feature mariachi bands as part of their cultural programming, the Rams were the first to embed a mariachi ensemble as a recurring game-day element when they launched the Mariachi Rams six years ago. Since then, a handful of teams have followed.<\/p>\n Behind the stadium lights and viral halftime moments are musicians who spend most of their week far from the field teaching students, working in offices, designing graphics or performing in classical orchestras across Southern California.<\/p>\n Several members of the Mariachi Rams teach through Jos\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s mariachi academy. Others balance careers in education, banking, graphic design and orchestral performance before transforming into stadium entertainers on Sundays.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have careers, their regular jobs during the week,\u201d Jos\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez says. \u201cFor them to put on that suit and to go to SoFi and to play \u2026 you just can\u2019t imagine the pride that they feel.\u201d<\/p>\n Santiago Espinoza, the band\u2019s vihuela player and a music educator, says the band has become \u201crock stars in a way,\u201d especially given how often they appear on the SoFi stadium’s massive video boards. <\/p>\n \u201cOther people who maybe don\u2019t know about mariachi, they come in to a game and maybe experience mariachi for the first time and they just love it,\u201d he says. \u201cThe energy and the vibe that it gives is just electric.\u201d<\/p>\n That energy travels well beyond the concourse.<\/p>\n \u201cEven the players on the field notice\u2026 the whole stadium is interconnected,\u201d Espinoza says. \u201cIt\u2019s like a big family. We like to call it the Ramilia.\u201d<\/p>\n The band\u2019s presence has become so baked into the Rams\u2019 game-day rhythm that fans immediately sense when something changes.<\/p>\n The group typically performs three times on game day: when gates open, during a first-quarter break and again later depending on the flow of the game. Their role has expanded into community events, watch parties and team activations across Los Angeles.<\/p>\n That evolution includes a holiday collaboration with the band War, which will perform \u201cFeliz Navidad\u201d alongside the Mariachi Rams at SoFi on Sunday.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was maybe one game where we had to cut one of their performances, and people\u2026 heard about it in the voice of the fan,\u201d says Marissa Daly, the Rams\u2019 senior vice president of studio and marketing. \u201cIt was like, \u2018Why did they only play twice?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n While the Mariachi Rams are a Rams-driven initiative, not an official NFL program, their rise fits inside a broader leaguewide push to expand how football connects culturally.<\/p>\n Recently, the NFL has spotlighted Latin artists at international games and major events as part of a strategy to grow its global and multicultural footprint.<\/p>\n Mariachi music has long been woven into the fabric of Los Angeles\u2019 public life. It’s a staple across various neighborhoods through quincea\u00f1eras, weddings, parades, street festivals and championship celebrations. Bringing that sound into SoFi Stadium, Daly says, was about introducing something new to the city in hopes of reflecting what was already there.<\/p>\n \u201cOur main logo is the two letters \u2018Los Angeles.\u2019 It\u2019s LA, right?\u201d Daly says. \u201cYou can\u2019t not celebrate Mexican American culture if you\u2019re an Angeleno. If you don\u2019t understand Mexican American culture, you\u2019re probably not going win over this market.\u201d<\/p>\n For Crystal Hern\u00e1ndez, the meaning of the Mariachi Rams stretches beyond music and game day. It\u2019s about visibility in a space that has rarely made room for women.<\/p>\n \u201cIt makes people feel seen,\u201d she says of the band\u2019s presence at SoFi. \u201cIt makes them feel excited to see that their home team, the Rams, recognizes that and embraces it.\u201d <\/p>\n As the only woman in the group, Hern\u00e1ndez says she stands at the intersection of tradition and change. For her father, the moment is deeply personal, saying she broke the mold for his family’s seven generations of male musicians.<\/p>\n Jos\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez believes the band can break barriers too. <\/p>\n \u201cI think it’s the beginning of a movement in the NFL,” he says. \u201cIf these teams know they have Latino fans supporting them, they’re going to think of bringing mariachi too.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.newsday.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" LOS ANGELES \u2014 Crystal Hern\u00e1ndez steadies her violin and scans the crowd from the sixth floor of SoFi Stadium as 70,000 fans stream into a Los Angeles Rams home game. Below her, blue-and-gold jerseys mix with charro suits and sombreros, and the low rumble of pregame noise swells into the opening notes of the late […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2194820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[359676,21751,21741,21800,307696],"class_list":["post-2194819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-ap-a-wire","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-wires-bot"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/How-the-Mariachi-Rams-band-turned-the-NFL-game-day.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2194819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2194819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2194819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2194821,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2194819\/revisions\/2194821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2194820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2194819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2194819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2194819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How the Mariachi Rams achieved an NFL first<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsday.com\/_next\/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.newsday.com%2Fimage-service%2Fversion%2Fc%3AZWNiOWIzZDMtNWQzZS00%3AZWQ2NDMyYzAtMDQxNS00%2Fcopy-of-mariachi-rams-football.jpeg%3Ff%3DLandscape%2B16%253A9%26w%3D768%26q%3D1&w=1920&q=80\"\/)
From classrooms to charro suits: The weekday lives of the Mariachi Rams<\/h2>\n
Mariachi Rams breaks tradition while carrying legacy<\/h2>\n