Mariachi music is an essential part of Mexican life and culture; it tells the story of heartache, anguish and involves a genuine craft of storytelling, but with this traditional genre comes a lot of male pride and ownership -- a challenge that talented female storytellers and musicians have faced since the 1950s.

Despite the machismo that comes along with these cherished ballads, female musicians who share an intense affection for the genre have defied the odds.

In this male-dominated business, female musicians aren’t valued or appreciated as much, but that hasn’t stopped them from doing what they love.

On Thursday, March 13, South by Southwest will highlight the women in mariachi movement with a film called Mariachi Las Pioneras de Mexico. The film is based on a group of elderly women mariachi singers and musicians who originally played in two of the most popular women's groups of the '50s and '60s, Las Estrellas de Mexico and Las Coronelas.

The band reunited in 2008 after being discovered by scholar/musician Laura Sobrino and her collaborators. In addition, the band has been teaching symposiums on women in mariachi. They are featured in the film "El Mariachi Feminil" and have just completed an album to be released in March 2013.

On March 8, SXSW shared the world premiere of Que Caramba es la Vida by Doris Dörrie and Helge Albers, which was based on the first female Mariachi band (formed in 1958) and is still performing,

With Mexico's famous Día de los Muertes celebrations as part of the film's backdrop, director Doris Dörrie accompanies the band to their performances on the streets of Mexico and throughout their daily lives. 

The film features a strong-willed Mexican Mariachi singer, Maria del Carmen, who dedicates her life to singing her heart out on the plaza. She is surrounded by men who are unaccepting and tough on her, but in essence it has made her develop a tough exterior to survive doing what she really loves. Del Carmen's passion is evident and she says that she sings with more heart than anyone.

“In the macho world of Mariachi music, very few women can hold their own. Just like the songs they play, this film is a snapshot of love, life, death and the things in between.”

According to Mujeres en Mariachi, a website that supports female musicians in this genre, female participation in Mariachi music began in Mexico City with three all-female touring ensembles, including: Mariachi Las Coronelas; Mariachi Las Adelitas; and Mariachi Michoacabno, which later became Mariachi Estrellas de Mexico.

In the United States, females in Mariachi got off to a different start over a decade later -- women would join all-male Mariachi bands instead of starting their own. 

“In the U.S., the earliest known female mariachi musician was documented to have been performing by March of 1971. For the next decade, several pioneers began performing mariachi music in that same area. Two all-female mariachi groups were formed by 1976: Mariachi Las Generalas in Los Angeles, Calif. and Mariachi Estrellas de Topeka in Topeka, Kansas.

"Since the 1980s, the growing female mariachi movement has been observable in the increasing number of female musicians and all-female groups performing around the world, as well as in the dramatic increase in female-to-male ratios at mariachi conferences held internationally.”