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THE EDUCATOR
R.J. Hernandez has been affiliated with Metro Arts for the past 12 years educating and performing throughout the Greater Des Moines area. R.J. recently was featured in the Metro Kids Arts Awareness program through an extended workshop for four weeks and a short-term workshop last fall arranged by Metro Arts.
“From the moment the students enter my classroom, they are exposed to a different language, another country and its cultural difference, to actively participate in playing instruments that they may never have been exposed to,” R.J. shares.
Acting as a facilitator between his students studies and their own unique qualities and gifts that they alone posses, R.J. tries to bring all that they are learning in the classroom to a real-life fun learning activity based in Latin music. "They are allowed to express themselves in front of their peers without any fear of ridicule that would otherwise close the child off to new ideas or other people that are unlike them. The students grow to appreciate and embrace the differences that we all have to share with one another."
THE MUSICIAN
R.J. has been a musician almost all his life. After eighteen years of performing alongside his father who was the last performing musician taught by the Mastero Pompeo from Mexico City, R.J. was on a basketball tournament in Chicago eating at a local Mexican restaurant in the heart of little Mexico. R.J. tells the story. “A group of musicians came strolling along and asked if his table, which included his coach and his wife, as well as a few other of the older ball players and their better halves, if we would like to hear our favorite songs from Mexico. I rattled off a few and they started performing with an energy as tight as the space they occupied around us. 
Before the last song, my coach said he'd pay double for the last tune if the group would allow me to play the guitar, as he knew I played alongside my father many times at festivals that he attended. They agreed and the night was historical as the feeling of all those years came full circle. The trumpets and violins that the mariachi group performs with went on as though their regular guitar player was still playing. I was in heaven as I strummed each chord on the guitar. From that moment on I knew I had been given a gift that had to be shared. Trouble was that I knew nobody originally from Mexico. I had tried to play with other musicians in college that were of Mexican descendants, but they lacked any sense of timing to the unique rhythms native to Mexico.”
LAS GUITARRAS DE MEXICO
In the fall of 1985 when the earthquake struck Mexico City, R.J. was determined to help his family members that were having a rough time getting back on their feet. R.J. was five years into running his family's second restaurant that he too was experiencing tough times after reconstruction made access to his restaurant limited. He planned a night of music and dining that had never been attempted before in Des Moines to help raise money to give to the Red Cross relief effort.
 R.J. remembers, “That night November 4, 1985, was the inception of the group Las Guitarras de Mexico. It was two musicians originally from Mexico City, my father who was taught by the Mastero Pompeo from Mexico City, and myself. The evening was filled with music that you would only find in the finest restaurants and resorts in Mexico. We raised over two thousand dollars on a Monday night normally the slowest night in the restaurant industry.”
For the past twenty years, Las Guitarras has been traveling, creating, and performing. The Iowa Arts Council and other government agencies recognized Las Guitarras for their authentic performances. They perform regularly throughout the area and the Midwest celebrating the folk-music traditions of Mexico City at community festivals and fairs. Las Guitarras de Mexico performed for Metro Arts' Two Rivers Art Expo last November.
DISCOGRAPHY
The following CDs are available by contacting RJ Hernandez at lasguitarrasdemexico@yahoo.com, 981-1100 or 371-7547. They can also be purchased online at www.buyiowaart.com.
Esperando, 2004
Nosotros, 1998
Solo para tí, 1996
Enternamente, 1993
 LIVE PERFORMANCES BY LAS GUITARRAS
May 5, 2006, Cinco de Mayo Celebration, 4-7 p.m. at the Hearst Center for the Arts in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Free admission.
Live music by Las Guitarras de Mexico, dance performances, educational art activities, face painting, games, and piñata breaking. Authentic Mexican foods will be available for purchase. For more information call 319-273-8641.
June 2, 2006, Hispanic Heritage Festival, 5-10 p.m. at the Courthouse Square in Marshalltown, Iowa. Free admission.
Live music by Las Guitarras de Mexico, piñata making, learn Spanish phrases, and enjoy the food. For more information call 641-754-5583.
CONTACT R.J. HERNANDEZ
R.J. Hernandez is available for public or private performances as a solo act or as a group with Las Guitarras de Mexico.
R.J. Hernandez
5754 Hamilton Street
Prole, IA 50229
981-1100 or 371-7547
lasguitarrasdemexico@yahoo.com
R.J. is also available to teach and perform at your school. For more information please click here or call Metro Arts at 515-280-3222.
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