No one saw the mashup coming. The idea to combine traditional, regional Mexican folk music with the songs from an '80s English rock band was born at a Christmas party. Mariachi Tierra Mia was hired for a private gig, like hundreds of others the band has played. While they were there, the client casually asked Solis, the producer and founder of the group,  if she knew any Morrissey. Solis, unsure of the reference, asked her husband, Ivan, if he knew The Smiths. He was thrilled. The Smiths were one of his favorite bands. Soon Ivan ran to the microphone and began singing “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now,” the band following his lead. Intrigued by the randomness of it all, Solis whipped out her phone, pressed record, and soon posted it online as part of her regular marketing routine, not really expecting much. But what started as a simple video exploded into a viral sensation with over a million views. They had struck gold, reinforcing the philosophy she had all along: “You have to adapt, or you don’t make it.”

Solis’ love of music began 20 years ago, in middle school, when a partnership between her school and a local music academy put a violin in her hands for the first time. Funds were tight at home, but the program offered free music lessons. Her dad recognized the talent in her. “We couldn’t really afford an instrument, but my dad… he always supported me. He gave me the money for my first violin,” she says. He was the one who tolerated the years of learning, of the scratchy off-key practicing that everyone else was sick of, and who never once suggested she quit. Her hard work paid off and she soon began performing. “When I was in high school, a lot of kids already worked with their parents or with groups, so that’s kind of how I got started playing music professionally,” explains Solis. She credits music as bringing her closer to her roots and her family, while also bringing her all over the world, from Toronto to Guadalajara, all the way to Dubai.

Solis’ producing journey began three years ago “on a whim” when she and a friend booked a venue for their first show and made the mistake of not reading the contract closely. “We were young, I didn’t read the fine print. I thought the venue was $700 to book the whole night, but it was actually $7,000,” she recalls, laughing. “Thankfully, we sold out and made a big profit.”

Since then, Mariachi Tierra Mia has booked hundreds of gigs. Along the way, Solis evolved as a producer and performer. For this show, however, she opted to take a step back from the spotlight and focus solely on producing. Through her previous experience at The Ford in 2025, she learned how complicated it is to work both behind the scenes and onstage. “Last year was very challenging,” she explains. “I kind of went in like a one-person show…. [But I learned that] as much as I want to be a jack of all trades, I can’t do everything.”

Despite the learning curves and sometimes costly mistakes, the show, much like her career, was a huge success. They sold out the whole theater.

When asked about her experience being a woman in a genre built largely around male repertoire and male bandleaders, the response she gave wasn’t one I was expecting: The friction, for her, isn’t due to her gender—it’s due to her age. As a 32-year-old producer, some of the musicians she works with have toured with big names and have a decade or two of experience on her, which has sometimes led to discomfort for all involved. “Sometimes it’s a challenge listening to someone that is younger, right? And managing different personalities can be really hard too but… I had a friend tell me that [at the end of the day] ‘nobody’s going to care about the show more than you;  you just need five people who care and are excited about what you’re doing to make it work.’”

For their show on Sunday, September 27 at The Ford, Solis is expecting a wide variety in the crowd. While she admits this show may not be for the traditional, “old school” mariachi crowd, she believes that it may be a good fit for nostalgic parents and grandparents that grew up listening to Morrissey, curious teens and young adults discovering The Smiths for the first time, and anybody in between that just wants to vibe out and have a good time.

While this mashup may seem unexpected for a number of reasons, Solis has a theory about why the two genres sit together as well as they do. Mariachi, at its core, is a music of longing, heartbreak, homesickness, loneliness, desire, and distance, which isn’t too far from what The Smiths built a career on.

The setlist itself reflects this bridge: Beginning with standard mariachi fare and transitioning to modern renditions of The Smith's classic songs, the show unites two different expressions of romantic melancholy in perfect harmony.

As a kid who transformed into a musician with a flea-market violin, a young female artist who learned how to thrive in male-dominated career, a musician who evolved into a producer, and a mariachi bandleader who transformed a genre to help keep the tradition alive, Solis has shown that flexibility is the key to success.

You have to adapt, or you don’t make it.