Sisters Tess and Maria Cuevas learned mariachi music from their grandmother Maria Teresa Alonzo Cuevas, a founder of the renowned all-female Mariachi Estrella of Topeka. The music was a staple of their childhood, and both girls began playing with Mariachi Estrella before they were teenagers.

As they grew older their musical tastes expanded but they remained involved with mariachi. In 2011 – Cinco de Mayo, in fact – the sisters’ collaborative fusion of traditional Mexican music and American influences such as blues, soul, funk and rock ’n’ roll took on an identity all its own: Maria the Mexican.

The band has released two albums, "Moon Colored Jade" in 2013 and “South of the Border Moonlight” in 2016, and is working on a third Mexican.