you know we lost pepe martinez, who was a leader of mariachi vargas. ow back in 1997 celebrating their 100th anniversary. pepe was the life of mariachi vargas, we lost him last week. so, this is to him. [music] damian: they've been performing with the best of the best simply because they are the best. they are mariachi vargas de tecalitlan. joining us now to talk about the history of mariachi music and the history of mariachi vargas, it's pepe martinez and mario santiago, the coordinators, i guess you could say of mariachi vargas. buenos dias y bendecido dia. both: buenos dias. damian: [speaking spanish] mario santiago: [speaking spanish] damian: pepe, how does it feel to be playing for the best? you guys are the best, obviously, but you guys have played for the best. pepe martinez: well, it's a great responsibility because we don't think we are the best. we are the best for loving the mexican music because we have been all over the world playing our music. that's one of the reasons we are the best but we love more the music. damian: [speaking spanish]

yo soy diátrujillo y hoy en nuestro prrama, nuestro homenaje a pepe martinez, el ex-líder del mariachi la unirsidad de stanford, frk carvajal; bienvenido al programa. frank carvajal: gracias dami, gracias. damiánrujillo: tenemos video l cbres pasadas.

i am damian trujillo and today our tribute to pepe martinez, a former leader of mariachi vargas de tecalitlan, we lost him here last weekend. plus, also, the hola run on your "comunidad del valle." announcer: nbc bay area presents "comunidad del valle" with damian trujillo. damian: we begin today, with again, our monthly visit by the mexican consulate in san jose. the topic today is cinco de mayo, of course that's next week. with me on "comunidad del valle," again, once again, is loren cruz sandoval. welcome to the show again. loren cruz sandoval: thank you very much, damian. it is a pleasure to be here with you. damian: thank you. well, you know what? we always say that cinco de mayo isn't celebrated in mexico. it's more a chicano thing here and maybe an american thing here but we do celebrated cinco de mayo over there. loren: and we celebrate it in a very big and in a very big kind of way. and actually, we want to, well just to talk about what we