Catch Lesly Reynaga's mariachi bops when she plays the Drop at Waterloo Records on Aug. 25

Lesly Reynaga understands the way mariachi music moves people.

“It hits a special place in people’s hearts,” the former soloist from the University of Texas' celebrated ensemble, Mariachi Paredes de Tejastitlán, says.

She sees it when she’s singing. The pathos-drenched vocals resonate with even second- and third-generation Mexicanos. The music “reminds them of where they come from,” she says.

En Español: Inspirada por la musica mariachi, Lesly Reynaga tocará en The Drop el 25 de agosto

“Even if they've never been back to their grandparents’ country. They still know that that's where they come from and that's where their roots (lie). And I think that's the beauty of music and the power that it has: to connect people to their identities and their heritage and their family.”

Reynaga, a naturalized citizen who was born in Mexico, is on a mission to bring mariachi to bigger stages. Last year, she thrilled audiences when she brought a full mariachi ensemble to the Austin City Limits Music Festival.

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Earlier this month, she celebrated the release of her debut full-length album “Valerosa” — a vibrant collection of mariachi-influenced slow burners and Spanglish bops — with a mariachi-backed set at Lollapalooza.

You can lose yourself in the high drama of Reynaga’s soaring vocals at 5 p.m. August 25 at Waterloo Records, when she brings a mini-mariachi to Waterloo Records for the next installment of The Drop. The Drop is our live music series produced in partnership with Austin’s NPR affiliate KUTX 98.9 FM. Each month we highlight an artist from the diverse communities that make Austin the Live Music Capital of the World. The Drop is always free and open to the public.

Mariachi ‘but in a pop setting’

Since she began making her own music, Reynaga has dreamed of recording traditional mariachi songs “but in a pop setting.” It was a complicated proposition because many traditional mariachi rhythms don’t fall into the standard 4/4 time signature that governs most popular Western music. Mariachi songs frequently waltz along in 3/4 or 6/8 time.

She had the core ideas for most of the songs and the dramatic mariachi vocals that she “can sing in her sleep” written before she went into the studio. But in order to amplify their pop potential, she needed a producer with an innate understanding of rhythmic structures.

She found the right collaborator in Nick Clark, a former Austinite who caught his big break playing bass for Kanye West several years back. Clark recently wrapped a few gigs playing bass with NOLA jazz/funk kingpin Jon Batiste, and he functioned as music director for Janelle Monae’s Essence Fest performance.

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Clark didn’t have a background in mariachi, nor did he speak Spanish. (Of the 12 songs on the album, nine are in Spanish.) But he approached the project with an open heart and broad enthusiasm. Drawing from his background in jazz, blues and hip-hop, he was able to modify the beats to create the “more contemporary” sound Reynaga was looking for.

“Some of the songs lean 100% mariachi. Some of them are kind of almost 100% pop and there's some that are a blend,” she says.

‘This used to be Mexico, whether you like it or not’

Much of mariachi is steeped in the timeless tradition of heartbreak songs. From the agonizing album opener “No Me Digas” to the aching “Huapango,” “Valerosa” offers ample opportunities for the lovelorn to cry it out.

“But at the same time, there are a lot of (mariachi) songs about pride and identity,” Reynaga says.

She leaned into that idea on “Valerosa.” Resisting ugly rhetoric with ebullient beats, the dance romp “A lo Alto” is an anthem for refugees who find themselves maligned in America.

“Cuando digan “ilegales” /Vamos volando hasta llegar a lo alto (When they say "illegals"/ We go up flying until we arrive at the top),” Reynaga sings.

She’s frustrated by conversations around immigration that paint Mexican immigrants as people who don’t contribute to American society, as “people that take and don't give.”

“I think that rhetoric is not only obviously wrong, but it's just maddening. It's just very frustrating,” she says. “Immigrants are such a big part of the system, the financial, the economic system. I mean, without immigrants, there's no United States. And that's just the facts.”

For Reynaga, the often insurmountable challenges of navigating America’s immigration system are not hypothetical. Her father is from South Texas and her mother is from Monterrey, Mexico, where she spent her early childhood. Because of a visa issue the family has been trying to clear for decades, her mother is barred from entering the country.

“I grew up going back and forth through that border,” Reynaga says.

After her parents divorced, her father stayed in Texas. “My mom would drive us to the border." she says. "And because my mom couldn't cross, she would drop us off and we would just walk through the border, go through the security, whatever, and then my dad would pick us up on the other side.”

In her day job, Reynaga works for a nonprofit that helps connect people in low-income housing with social services.

“I can see the struggles that people go through, and they're very real,” she says. “I mean, people lose family members, people leave family behind and they don't see them for decades.”

Speaking out and talking about immigration comes naturally to Reynaga. “And then hopefully, musically, it also makes sense because I think they go hand in hand,” she says.

She uses the folkloric music of Mexico to talk about how her people have been in Texas for generations. “This used to be Mexico, whether you like it or not,” she says. “So why can't we embrace that and just move forward?”

A 'wow moment for mariachi music'

For her big festival performances, Reynaga has partnered with student groups to bring the full mariachi experience to the stage. She wants to “provide an opportunity for the students to get that experience on a festival stage, but also for it to be "this wow moment for mariachi music,” she says.

“That's where my heart is,” she says.

Reynaga first discovered the beauty of mariachi music as part of her high school ensemble in McAllen. “I always tried to sing like Christina Aguilera, and then suddenly I was imitating Lola Beltrán and all of these very iconic, old timer, golden (era) Mexican cinema stars.”

She wants young people who are performing in their middle and high school mariachi ensembles to know that there are more outlets than regional competitions. “You can take that (music) anywhere you go. You could put it on a stage at Lollapalooza,” she says.

Her goal is to keep representing this music “that is so authentic to Mexican culture, so authentic to Mexican identity,” on as many big stages as possible. Beyond the beauty of the music itself, she believes “it allows you to express yourself and show pride, regardless of whatever the rhetoric is at a national level,” she says.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin's Lesly Reynaga is creating 'a wow moment for mariachi' music