“To me, (mariachi) was as high an art form as those others that I was covering,” said Buckley, who moved to Tucson from his native New York in 1971 to attend the University of Arizona. “It took 10 years to do this, and I’m still learning stuff every day.”īuckley’s research has made him arguably the authority on mariachi in Tucson, a genre of music that piqued his interest when he first started covering Tucson’s classical music scene for the Citizen in 1987. “I had no idea it was going to take this long,” he said.

Mamta Popat, Arizona Daily StarĪbout a half dozen of the people he interviewed early on have since died one interview subject died two weeks before Buckley was set to speak with them. The screening will be followed by a party and musical performnces by local musicians.Daniel Buckley, director of “The Mariachi Miracle” has worked on the documentary film for 10 years, which chronicles the history and significance of Tucson’s role in the rise of mariachi music. Tickets for the re-premier can be purchased at the door for $5, with all proceeds going to the El Casino Restoration Fund.

'He worked after hours late in to the night just so that his daughter could eventually have her quinciñera there, and she did.' 'One of the most interesting people I spoke to during this whole process was a construction worker who volunteered on the reconstruction,' Buckley says.

The roof has since been a work-in-progress to fix, an effort that Buckley says is very personal to some of the construction workers volunteering their time to restore it. In 1991, a large part of the ballroom's roof was blown off in a storm. 8 in the very building that it is about, starting at 6 p.m. 'It was somewhere they could feel at home.'īuckley's El Casino Ballroom Documentary captures the many historical and personal stories behind the iconic gathering place. 'Men would come home from war and go there,' says Daniel Buckley, producer of a documentary on the ballroom. 26th St., has been the site of hundreds of family and community celebrations, especially in the Mexican-American culture.

That's been true since 1947, when the South Side community and cultural center opened. Long-time Tucsonans know that for weddings and quinciñeras, El Casino Ballroom is THE place.

El casino ballroom tucson