“Cindy is a visionary and what she has created is an accurate depiction of how powerful the music of mariachi is here in the United States,” said Monique Garcia, a Cal State Fullerton academic athletic counselor and manager of the Mariachi Divas. “The blending of cultures and blending of musical styles is a positive step in building bridges amongst cultures and she stands by that concept. The fact that Cindy is your prototypical blond-haired blue-eyed all American girl does not diminish her contribution
to the music of mariachi. It makes it that much more significant.”

Shea was a kid in her junior high school band when her love of trumpet playing blossomed.

“While the other kids were at lunch, I was in the band room practicing my scales and jazz improvisation techniques,” she said. “I really worked hard.”

She listened to and studied the great trumpet players Clifford Brown and Duke Ellington and “I asked a lot of questions,” she said. “I yearned for more knowledge.”

As a freshman at Los Altos High School in Hacienda Heights, she was in the marching band, a jazz combo and was chosen to play in the lead jazz band. She was the only girl in the 14-member trumpet section.

“I had a lot of problems with the boys who didn’t think I belonged there,” Shea said. “I went to my band director’s office a thousand times, thinking I should just quit. But, the experience taught me to be strong because if you’re good at anything, you’re going to be challenged.”

At 16, Shea wanted professional training, so she started teaching kids to play trumpet for $5 a lesson.
She then used the money she earned to pay for her own private lessons. She also participated in summer music programs at Cal State Fullerton before enrolling as a music education major in 1992.

“I was very close to finishing my degree in 1996 when I met Arturo Sandoval at a concert at the Orange County Performing Arts Center,” Shea said. “I got to play for him and he offered me a full scholarship to study with him at the Florida International University in Miami. At that point, I didn’t want to be a teacher. I wanted to be a trumpet player so I left Fullerton and spent two-and-a-half years learning from Cuban, Latin and jazz teachers. I also learned piano and percussion and how to fuse all of it together.”

She became a sought-after musician on the salsa circuit in Los Angeles, even playing with the late queen of the genre Celia Cruz. In 1999, she formed Mariachi Divas, after having played in a Los Angeles-based mariachi group that split up. Five years later, the Divas became a corporation.

Judging from the enthusiastic audience response they receive at their concerts and the number of events they book, it seems the Divas have a prosperous future ahead. They’ve made two albums — “Dulce Daño” and “Así Somos” — and are working on a Christmas CD.

But, Shea recalls, the road to success wasn’t easy. 

“I’ve been told all my life, ‘you can’t play trumpet because you’re a girl,’ ” Shea said. “They said, ‘you can’t play salsa, you’re a white girl.’ They said, ‘you can’t play mariachi music’ and ‘you can’t be the leader of a mariachi band because you’re a girl and you don’t speak Spanish fluently.’ ”

To her critics today, Shea has this request: “Let me know what I can’t do next and I’ll show you I can.”
There is one thing she is considering: coming back to CSUF to complete her degree in music education.

“As a role model for my son, I would love to finish my college education,” She said. “I think now I could become a good music teacher because I have the knowledge to teach from my heart. I would love to teach a history of music class or a music business class.”