Mariachi Suit

Ezekiel (Zeke) Castro wore this suit to perform mariachi music during his fifty-year-long career as a musician and music teacher. He became so well known that he earned the nickname “El Rey” (The King) of Mariachi in Austin.

Mariachi performers often wear these kinds of dazzling trajes (suits) as they sing and play their string instruments. With their hand-sewn designs and decorative buttons, these suits have become a symbol of Mexican history and culture for Mariachi musicians. Although they can come in many colors, black and silver trajes are common at formal events.

Zeke Castro wore this traje during many of his performances. He first began taking orchestra classes at nine years old in 1948, and he was part of a special program called the Junior Strings Project (JSP). The JSP aimed to train a new generation of musicians and music teachers since there was a shortage of American music teachers after WWII. By the time he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, he had become an instructor in that program. Zeke continued teaching music to hundreds of students over the next fifty years. He retired in 2018 after earning the nickname “El Rey” (The King) of Mariachi.