Grammy-winning mariachi bandleader Nati Cano, who stirred American audiences with the folk sounds of his native Mexico and played a key role in helping to teach young people how to play the music, has died at age 81, a bandmate said on Saturday.
Cano died on Friday at a hospital in Fillmore, California, after a long battle with cancer, said the bandmate, Sergio Alonso.
Born in 1933 in a rural town near Guadalajara, Mexico, Natividad "Nati" Cano grew up with the mariachi music his family of day laborers played in their spare time.
The traditional folk music is centered . . .
