Latin Grammy-winning Flor de Toloache kicks off Fox Tucson Theatre’s Women of Mariachi initiative on Saturday, March 19.

 Piero F. Gunti

Fox Tucson Theatre snagged a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support its Women of Mariachi initiative that shines a spotlight on all-female mariachi groups.

The Fox project was among 1,248 to receive funding through the NEA’s $28.8 million Grants for Arts Projects award, announced in January.

Fox Theatre’s Executive Director Bonnie Schock said the grant, which she applied for last summer, will support the Fox’s $78,000 initiative, which kicks off Saturday, March 19, with the Latin Grammy-winning mariachi-fusion ensemble Flor de Toloache and will include another event in October. Both events will feature community outreach opportunities to work with the artists.

“One of the things I want to do going forward is to build into educational components that gives community opportunities to know the artists in a different kind of way,” Schock said.

The initiative’s launch in the middle of Women’s History Month is a fitting tribute to female mariachi artists who often are overshadowed by their male counterparts, Schock said.

“The Tucson community has an unbelievably rich connection to mariachi and lots of wonderful programs that focus on youth and developing for the next generation. There’s a vibrant scene here around that music,” Schock said. “There’s an extraordinary group of women who are working in the form and continuing to innovate in the form and don’t always get the recognition that they might deserve.”

Tucson's own all-female mariachi ensemble Las Azaleas will open for Flor de Toloache's Fox Tucson Theatre show on Saturday, March 19. 

Members of the internationally acclaimed Flor de Toloache, founded in New York City in 2008, hail from Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Australia, Colombia, Germany, Italy and the United States. The group won the 2017 Latin Grammy for best ranchero/mariachi album and has collaborated with big names including Black Keys’ singer Dan Auerbach’s side project The Arcs, Chicano Batman, No Te Va Gustar and Luba Mason.

NPR said the ensemble “stuns at the crossroads of fusion and mariachi girl magic. ...These are exciting times for artists baring their musical truths through the cross-cultural evolution of music.” The Morning Call of Allentown, Pennsylvania, gushed, “From the start, it was clear Flor de Toloache was not your father’s mariachi.”

Las Azaleas, Tucson’s all-female mariachi ensemble, opens the show. It begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Fox, 17 W. Congress St. Tickets are $25 to $37.50 through foxtucson.com.

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Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@tucson.com. On Twitter @Starburch