About The Founder

Dr. Leonor Xóchitl Pérez is the Founder and Executive Director of the Mariachi Women’s Foundation, the first organization to focus on the advancement of women in the male-dominated mariachi genre. She is also the founder and director of the first International Mariachi Women’s Festival which, since 2014, brings mariachi women’s groups and performers from all over the world to Los Angeles annually. She is recognized for her pioneering research on the history of women in mariachi music and has presented this research at universities, municipalities and organizations internationally. Her most recent presentations were in Mexico at the Universidad de Guadalajara’s Centro Universitario de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades in August of 2025 and at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in 2024. She was recently selected to present her latest research at the Universidad Alberto Hurtado in Santiago, Chile in January 2027. Dr. Pérez is a leader, innovator, scholar, professor, promoter and producer who brings traditional and innovative expressions of Mexican music and dance to audiences throughout the Americas.

She first learned mariachi violin at 12 years of age in East Los Angeles. Her mariachi teacher was Jesus Sanchez a Mexican mariachi musician and immigrant who worked with some of the most recognized pioneering mariachis such as Perla de Occidente. Sanchez migrated to the to the U.S. and worked in the fields of California before he was recruited by UCLA to become the the first native Mexican mariachi teacher in a U.S. school.

She has performed with mariachi groups in California and Washington D.C. and performed for two Presidential inaugural balls. She was also a founding member of the prestigious Mariachi Mujer 2000 with which she performed at the Hollywood Bowl. Another professional highlight was her two-year collaboration with the San Diego Symphony and composer Bill Conti, best known for composing the theme for the film “Rocky.” Their collaboration culminated with an original composition Your Song Your Story co-created with San Diego County’s multicultural artists. Her engagement in cultural production began as a child through her voice recordings for the nation’s first bilingual education animated films created by John Sutherland Productions.

Dr. Pérez is known for her seminal book chapter, “Transgressing the Taboo: A Chicana’s Voice in the Mariachi World.” It was the first published academic work to explore gender in the predominately-male mariachi tradition. Her groundbreaking and original research on the history of women in mariachi music has received international recognition since 2015. She has given academic presentations on this research at the world conferences of International Council for Traditional Music & Dance at universities in New Zealand, Thailand, Ireland, and Kazakhstan. Additionally, her traveling exhibit, The Trailblazing Women of Mariachi Music, reverses the erasure of over 100 years of mariachi women’s history and has been displayed at museums and colleges in California, Texas, Colorado and Arizona.

Dr. Pérez holds a PhD from UCLA and a Master’s degree from Harvard in Education and Psychology. In addition to her background in the arts, she has also had an extensive career in higher education. She has worked as a Dean at East Los Angeles college, an Administrator at the Harvard Medical School, a program evaluator for the California Community College Chancellor’s Office, an educational consultant for two tribal colleges in South Dakota and has taught at UCLA, Harvard, and San Diego State University. Through Education and the Arts, Dr. Pérez has served the community at large while never leaving her roots and continuing to serve the East Los Angeles community where she was raised.