El Mariachi was a Mexican mariachi musician. He was famous for his 1992 revenge quest against the drug lord who killed his lover, which began as the result of the drug lord's hit squad's confusion of El Mariachi with a similarly-dressed mariachi assassin, Azul.
Biography[]
El Mariachi was born into a family with a long history of being musicians; his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were all mariachi musicians. He spent his youth as a vagrant, wandering around in hopes of becoming a successful musician. In 1992, he walked across the desert to the border city of Ciudad Acuna in Coahuila, and he felt that he would be lucky in the city after he was given free coconut water from local farmers. However, his arrival in the city coincided with the escape of the black-clad mariachi assassin Azul's escape from a local jail; Azul carried guns in his guitar case, while El Mariachi carried a guitar. El Mariachi entered the cheap Hotel Coahuila in search of lodging, and hotel owner Amandio Alejandro Cordero, who had been visited by a hit squad sent by the drug lord Moco to kill Azul, informed the hit squad that the man they had been looking for was in Room 4-10. El Mariachi, an innocent man with no friends or enemies, attempted to escape, and his escape led to two of the hitmen accidentally shooting each other dead, while he beat down hit squad leader Rufo Orozco Bustamante with his guitar case and used Orozco's gun to kill hitman Salvo Bahena Rodrígez.
Mariachi then sought refuge in a bar owned by Domino, whom he had briefly met before while attempting to sell his musical services to a bar owner. Domino agreed to let him stay upstairs after he pled for her assistance, and she later discovered his innocence when she opened his guitar case and found a guitar, and learned of his talents when she forced him to play the guitar and sing as she held a knife to his genitals as he sat in the bathtub. She decided to allow for him to stay at the bar in exchange for him playing guitar for the customers, and the two fell in love.
Later, Azul visited the bar for information on Moco and for a drink, and he accidentally took Mariachi's guitar case instead of his own; when Mariachi returned from retrieving his deposit at the Hotel Coahuila, he found that the assassin's guitar case was left behind. He then rushed outside to exchange cases with the assassin, but Cordero had once more called the hit squad, and El Mariachi was forced to kill hitmen Danny Irizarry Lara and Laurence Gaona Viera with the guns inside of the case. A short time later, as he headed to buy a new guitar for temporary use, he was knocked out by Orozco and taken to Moco's ranch. Moco identified him as the wrong man and had Orozco drop the unconscious Mariachi off back in town.
Confrontation with Moco[]
El Mariachi leaving Ciudad Acuna
Meanwhile, Azul forced Domino to take him to Moco's home, pretending to hold her hostage with the goal of retrieving his payment from Moco; Domino sought to rescue the Mariachi, whom she believed to still be in Moco's captivity. However, when Domino asked where the Mariachi was, Moco realized that Domino had feelings for the Mariachi instead of him, and an enraged Moco shot both her and Azul dead. At the same time, Mariachi drove to Moco's ranch on a motorcycle gifted by Moco to Domino, having been given a map to the ranch by the bartender at Domino's bar. He found his lover and Azul dead, and an enraged Moco shot Mariachi in the hand to render him useless as a guitar player. He taunted and laughed at the Mariachi, and a grief-stricken and enraged Mariachi picked up Azul's gun and shot him several times, killing him. Moco's men decided to spare him, as Orozco was tired of Moco's abuse. The Mariachi left town on Domino's motorcycle, taking her pit bull and letter-opener by which to remember her. His only protection for the future was Azul's weapons, which he took along in the guitar case.