This week on Arizona Illustrated, a women led mariachi group celebrating the works of female musicians.

The reason this ended up turning into a group that is all female and performs the works of women is because it was an accident.

We meet photographer Robert McDonald in Flagstaff.

You know, I'm 85 and so I'm not going to last forever.

And I need to do something with these images.

The story of a solar startup, energy storage, something that will be needed in the next 10, 20 years and a lesson on some of our native agave species.

the lower leaves that stored starch during the winter.

All that energy goes into the production of the stock Hello and welcome to an all new episode of Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara.

And we're coming to you today from the Sosa Carrillo House and Mexican-American Heritage and History Museum, which is literally surrounded by the Tucson Convention Center.

The building was constructed back in the 1870s before Arizona was even a state.

And it's a great example of Sonoran Row architecture.

It was saved from demolition during urban renewal that took place from the 1940s through the sixties and Tucson.

But most of the neighborhood surrounding it was not.

Joining me to discuss the museum and its significance is co-director Alisha Vasquez.

This is a labor of love for you.

Why are you so passionate about this place?

Why is it so special?

Well, this place, I think, reminds me of my grandfather, Louis Vasquez, who was a third generation Tucsonan, Tucsonense and I grew up hearing stories about Tucson in the past.

And I think a lot of kids from Tucson get stories like this from their elders and you don't really think about it until it's too late.

And so for me, Sosa-Carrillo House is a site of resistance.

It's a site of resistance from urban renewal.

It's a site of resistance from kind of the modern changes that are going on downtown.

But additionally, it's a place to celebrate.

Right.

This is a spot that acknowledges La Calle and a bunch of families lived here prior to the 1968 demolition of 80 acres of the barrio.

But we wanted to create an exhibit that honored women from Tucson.

It was just very timely.

The renaming of the Music Hall to the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall.

And then of course, the renaming of Plaza to the Alva Torres Plaza.

And she's the person who really spearheaded the fight to save the kiosk over there, as well as this building.

You know, she was that intermediary between, I would say, the Mexican-American community and the larger Anglo community that had a lot of power at this time.

And so to highlight the fact that their legacies live literally in this land was super important.

Linda Ronstadt, Spanish language album Canciones de me Padre, is one of her most celebrated works.

This next group follows in her tradition of excellent artists from Tucson, Los Azaleas, as a woman led mariachi group that features the voices and talent of female musicians And a one, two.

[Mariachi Music] Laz Azaleas rehearse once a week here in my little house, and we just go through the music.

We're preparing for the upcoming shows.

We perform all over Tucson for both private and public events.

Bésame mucho.

Consuelo Velasquez I would say is probably the reason Laz Azaleas is.

Because I knew her most famous song, Bésame Mucho for years.

For decades, everybody knows that song.

It's so beautiful and it has been done the world over.

I mean, it's arguably the most famous bolero romantic song out there.

And I had no idea a woman composed it and then a woman from Mexico.

And so I thought.

There have to be more people out there that don't know her name.

And so that's what we're going to commit to, is to exposing the names of these really pioneering women in music through our music.

como si fuera esta noche la ultima vez.

Mariachi music is just such a huge part of the Mexican culture.

Bésame Mucho.

que tengo miedo a perderte, perderte después.

I first became interested in mariachi in high school.

I do have to preface that and say I didn't like Mariachi at first.

My dad was a big fan of mariachi music and I was so embarrassed OMG that he was into mariachi And ultimately I think that stemmed from from moving here from Mexico when I was five and, and for quite a bit of my growing up being presuming I was seen as other because I didn't know English really well .

And so I really embraced my Americanness for many years in elementary school and middle school and in high school as well.

And, and it wasn't until I got to high school and I saw the high school mariachi band, it just made such an impact to see that performance that I said, I have to learn to do that [Grito] Tú no crees que yo te quiero.

Que este amor es tan sincero.

Como pura es la verdad Pues si yo no te quisiera.

A tu lado no estuviera.

Yo no te voy a engañar.

Ya no pienses mal cariño Yo no te he dado motivo Para que tú pienses mal.

The reason this ended up turning into a group that is all female and that performs the works of women is because it was an accident.

I just wanted to experiment and I wanted to just play music.

And it turned out I kept calling these really talented musicians.

And they all happened to be women.

No sabes ni lo que tienes Y yo creo que nunca te vas a enterar.

I love this group.

And just to have five super talented, wonderful ladies, we mesh well.

super talented, wonderful ladies, we mesh well.

We get you know, we get along so well.

We understand each other.

Si no estoy que donde estaba Si no vengo donde andaba Y otra vez a discutir.

The main reason why I joined Las Azaleas was to get a new experience that wasn't just mariachi.

And I think that Diana tries really hard to incorporate all types of female artists, whether it be a pop artist.

We've done a couple of pop songs.

Mariachi music started as a completely male dominated genre, and all of the lyrics and the songs are from the viewpoint of a man who makes sure that the music we perform was either composed or popularized by a woman.

And so I wouldn't want to just just say we are a traditional group just because I do value and appreciate the rich history of mariachi music.

Y no me conoces nada, nada.

No sabes ni lo que tienes Y yo creo que nunca te vas a enterar [Applause] So let's look at the voices first.

Give me an A chord, please.

A donde ira Veloz y fatigada I never thought that it that I would be in something so powerful because it is, that I would be in something so powerful because it is, you know, woman based and woman led.

And we're we're here to, you know, spread the voices of women.

There's a little solo there.

So top three four one.

We see a lot of Vicente Fernandez and other men like that, mariachi men.

But we don't really see Mexican mariachi women or Mexican But we don't really see Mexican mariachi women or Mexican women in general.

So I think us showing and and displaying and telling.

Who is singing these songs and why we're singing these songs is really awesome.

And seeing people's faces in the audience like, "I didn't know that."

Or, "Oh yeah, I did know that."

that."

Or like they're like, "Yeah, Props!

” I really like that and that's one of the reasons why I'm super proud of being in laz azaleas.

And I have so many dreams for Las Azaleas.

I just love mariachi music.

I think the music is poetic, and there are really great, inspiring women out there.

And it's okay to just start your own band.

It's okay to start your two person band or your three person band because it's provided such a safe outlet for me and so many musicians I know.

And I hope we're able to inspire our kids to keep music in their lives.

Adios.

Elias is trying to inspire a younger generation, our next story is a good reminder you're never too old to find your passion.

Robert McDonald took up photography in the 1990s after he retired from the Forest Service.

Since then, his photos have been published in magazines, including Arizona Highways and his entire archive as part of a photo collection at the Arizona State Museum.

We joined Robert and his 1977 Ford Bronco on a photo shoot in the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff and along the way he tells us about his journey as a landscape photographer My name is Robert McDonald.

I was born in Cottonwood.

I've lived in Flagstaff since June of 1977.

I got interested in nature when I was in high school.

Hunting and fishing was important, and it just evolved from there, from camping to backpacking trips.

And I guess it just gave me a sense of well-being.

I love the outdoors, that's why I worked for the Forest Service.

I was a civil engineer and surveyed and designed roads and I also laid out trails and then planning and designing campgrounds.

So I started thinking, well, what am I going to do when I retire?

And I thought mainly about wildlife photography.

Then I started seeing all the neat landscapes out there.

In the first part, I was just following the work of the previous photographers, and then as I continued onward, I just maybe developed my own style, you might say.

And then I had read books too, about composition and the rule of thirds and some of this.

But I would look at a subject and just say, you know, how would it look good to me.

Well, the first photograph I got published was probably the most exciting.

Well, the first image was one up on the San Francisco peaks of autumn aspens, and the moon was in the photograph.

But I was very happy.

Let's put it that way.

And excited.

You know, I'm 85 and so I'm not going to last forever.

And I need to do something with these images rather than just throwing them away or something.

Years ago, I had a print purchased by Arizona State Museum.

I thought, Well, I'll try them.

And then Jannelle said, sure, we'll take your photos or something to that effect anyway.

I feel good that they can be used and preserved rather than just forgotten and lost.

You put the dark cloth over your head and you're looking at a viewing screen and you're kind of in your own little world.

Tucson has sun and lots of it today being a rare exception.

So it's only natural that we become a hub for solar innovation.

This next story introduces us to a University of Arizona chemistry professor and his company developing battery technology for long term storage of solar energy THOMAS: We didn't really begin with working on batteries.

That's something that came up later when working with this molecule that we're developing in my lab, we found out they have this unique property that can be used as energy storage electrolyte.

I'm Thomas Jenny.

I'm assistant professor at the University of Arizona in the Department of Chemistry.

And I'm the CEO and co-founder of CarbeniumTec.

A battery technology startup.

I started my lab in 2017.

At the time, it was just a thought, an idea, a vision.

And it's not until Jules Moutet, which is a post-doc in my lab that joined the group and really like took that idea and that vision and make it work.

This is a big dream to me.

And I expect that addition of I came in with my background, knowledge and term of science and chemistry, but also with the will to make it work was I was not doing that before, but it's almost like inspiring.

And so I think my skills of assembling battery in just got this amazing results that contribute to create this startup and THOMAS: So with CarbeniumTec, we strive to develop a sustainable battery for long duration energy storage.

Energy storage as a whole is something that will be needed in the next 10, 20 years.

It's the requirement for our society to transition from fossil fuel electricity production to renewable electricity production.

The problem with renewable energy is the intermittency.

For example, solar energy is only produced during the day.

We're going to need batteries that can deliver electricity throughout the night.

And there is no suitable technology as of today.

They can do that other than the technologies that we are developing, which is a redox flow battery.

When you work in the lab, one of the most important part is where we make molecules.

That's where you mix things together.

You reflux things, so you heat it up and you basically make new molecules.

Then what we will see is what we call a glove box, which is basically a device that allows you to do experiment and inert atmosphere.

So no water, no oxygen.

We just make sure that we are in an ideal environment to study our electrolytes.

And from there, we take our electrolyte from that growth box and we put it into our redox flow prototype.

You would see a pump that basically flows the electrolyte from the reservoir into the electrochemical cell where the electron in an ion exchange happened.

So what we need to do now is to push that work a little bit beyond the lab and try to develop a pilot.

That's where we started working with the UACI, which is the University of Arizona Center for Innovation.

They really help us to understand the aspect of of what it is to run a business, because we are, after all, scientist.

now, the big next step is just transitioning on.

Research lab in the center of innovation should be clearly more about bringing something from knowledge to something that could be again, probably sell and use.

No, I was just mentioning this is a really good example of what the dry labs are.

For myself, it's also a way to just growing from just an academic person to someone that is able to transform it into something valuable for our society.

Well, it's something really motivating these ideas, stimulating THOMAS: What's really exciting about this move is really this growth of coming from a research-- exciting research project in the lab to an actual company.

There's this renewal of interest of realizing that really academic research all like the seed of innovation.

Going through this process of developing a company and developing a technology and realizing more importantly, that what I develop in the lab as an academic person can actually have an impact, really show me that I can do more.

And and I'm hoping that when this is on track and roll by itself, like just what else can I do?

What were one other topic that is important to our society?

Can I tackle and try to do to leave a footprint in?

Arizona is known for many native plants like the squirrel cacti or Palo Everyday trees or the edible prickly pears.

But the state is also blessed with a variety of agave.

They occasionally grab your attention with those unique and colorful blooms.

So today we introduce you to two of these agave that also play an important part in the environment.

You've probably seen them as you're hiking or driving in southeast Arizona.

(George) Hi, I'm George Ferguson.

I'm the collections manager at the University of Arizona Herbarium, which is a plant collection there.

I'm standing next to a Palmer Agave.

It's called Agave palmeri.

That's a scientific name.

And this grows in the borderlands region of Arizona, from southwestern New Mexico, across Arizona, commonly around the upper grasslands in the Nogales area, over towards Bisbee, in the Mule Mountains and in the sky islands around in northern Sonora.

This is pollinated by a nectar feeding bat called the Lesser Long Nose Bat.

And it occurs in this area in the summer only its migratory.

Comes up from central Mexico, follows the blooming cardon and saguaro and organ pipe cactus along the coast of Sonora, comes up into Arizona in early summer.

But by the time this agave begins to bloom, those bats are over here in southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico, utilizing this as their primary food source during the summer.

And so there's a nice mutualistic relationship between this plant and the bat.

[bees buzzing] As this agave begins to bloom, the lower leaves that stored starch during the winter.

All that energy goes into production of the stalk.

The leaves will dry out and die.

This plant won't live much longer.

It's on its way out.

Blooms once and dies.

The Palmer Agave is one of four species of agave in this part of Arizona that have these paniculata branching stalks.

These produce capsules after the flower is pollinated.

The capsules produce seeds.

This rarely ever produces a side offset as well.

It's one of the characteristics of the Palmer Agave.

As you get up towards the Catalina mountains, in the Rincon Mountains from there north up into central Arizona is a very closely related agave called the Golden Flower Agave.

Agave chrysantha.

It blooms about the same time slightly earlier, but the flowers are bright orange, gold and yellow flowers.

Whereas the Palmer Agave has kind of a dull, pinkish maroon tinge to a cream colored flower.

And there's a hybrid area between about Oracle and the Rincon Mountains, which includes the Catalina Mountains, where these two species, the Palmer Agave on the south and the Golden Flower Agave on the north, come together and produce potentially hybrids or at least some confusion about identity.

The Golden Flower Agave produces a lot of nectar, and that impressed me when I was able to shake it and have a rain of nectar fall on me in the daytime with all the visiting insect pollinators there.

I guess I'll be out of view for a while here.

Now here's a Golden Flower Agave.

Still blooming with the last five panicles and even a few buds at the top.

Some mammal has tried to climb this and probably did maybe a ring tail cat or a fox probably trying to get the nectar.

My interest in these plants and the mutualistic relationships of these plants with animals is something that takes me outdoors and get to see it firsthand.

Always a surprise.

It's just something else that's new.

Every time you go out, you learn something new.

[camera shutter sound] You know, there's so much out there.

It's mind boggling the diversity that you see in plants and animals on Earth.

When you start really studying, looking at it, it's just amazing.

Levels.

And tell us about your connection to this special place and tell me how you feel every time you walk in here.

Oh, I feel like I come home when I come here and I come to visit my family and my descendants.

My Aunt Leticia Carrillo Jacobs, the went this was the last tenant that lived here.

I remember playing in the backyard.

I remember killing her goldfish in the living room because I didn't know that you didn't feed them inside the tank.

You I took them out and gave them bread so I'm happy to come because I feel her presence here.

I feel my parent's presence here.

They're long gone.

But I get good vibes when I'm here and I love to show this house off.

I'm very proud of it.

And you've got a special connection very few people have to a place and people well, I don't know.

Half of Tucson has a connection here because I related to mathematics but when I'm here as a docent or I've been here as a as a staffer, while events are taking place in in the patio I've had many people tell me I've lived here all my life.

I didn't know this place was here.

They are just delighted to find out that it's here.

So that makes me feel very good.

Thank you for joining us here on Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara, and we'll see you next week for another all new episode.