If the Olympics are all about cultures colliding, then consider this for a gold medal: a mariachi from Fresno performing in Beijing.

Marisa Orduño and her all-female group, Mariachi Mujer 2000, will perform during today's Olympic opening ceremony.

"Mariachis in China?" says Orduño, the group's founder and director. "That's the last place I thought I would performing mariachi music."

Mariachi music has taken Orduño to big places: in front of more than 20,000 people at the Hollywood Bowl, to a Barack Obama fundraiser at Oprah Winfrey's house. But none as big as this. The opening ceremony is expected to draw billions of TV viewers.

"This is a world event," says Orduño, 38. "It only happens every four years. I mean a world event. It's surreal."

Orduño and her 11-member troupe landed in Beijing last week. The group has been through three rehearsals in preparation for today's ceremony, which will air at 7:30 p.m. on NBC.

"It is an amazing feeling to be on a stage while the flags are being presented on the field," Orduño wrote in an e-mail from Beijing on Tuesday, after the group's final rehearsal. "The National Olympic stadium has been full each time we have rehearsed. I have never been around that many people in my life."

Orduño can't reveal many details about the ceremonies. She did say Mariachi Mujer 2000 is one of a small number of groups performing, and the only one from North America. The group had to learn three new songs and will be on TV for 1 minute and 30 seconds.

"The beginning of the show is just incredible," she says. "I am not really at liberty to say too much -- and maybe I have already."

The show is intended to be a spectacle, a chance for the host country to welcome the world's athletes and audiences to its Olympics. The Beijing organizing committee hired acclaimed Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou to direct.

Patrick Escobar, a member of the organizing committee for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, said the ceremonies have two goals.

"One is basically to give the organizing committee the opportunity to paint a picture about that city and that country's culture" he said. "The second part is to talk about the fact that the Olympic movement is global. That's why they have mariachi, and I'm sure they have music from other countries. They're trying to show that music is really a unifying force around the world."

At least one music expert sees Mariachi Mujer 2000's inclusion as historically significant.

China is "pretty much virgin territory," says Jonathan Clark, a Bay Area-based mariachi expert who gives regular lectures at Fresno's annual Viva El Mariachi festival.

"It's significant not only for mariachi music, but it's significant for all-female groups to be chosen for something like this."

Orduño almost didn't believe it when she was first contacted.

It was about five months ago that Mariachi Mujer 2000 was invited to try out for an Olympic spot. Orduño knew better than to get her hopes up. Though her group is well known in mariachi -- a traditional Mexican folk music with Spanish influences, dating back to the 19th century -- the music as a whole remains a small piece of the world music scene.

She submitted a video and information on the group and two months ago was chosen by the Beijing organizing committee.

"I'm proud to be representing the United States and representing the music of Mexico," Orduño said from her northeast Fresno home two weeks ago, as she was packing for Beijing.

Her proud mother, Carmen Orduño-Rodriguez, looked on.

"She was born with it," Orduño-Rodriguez says.

Marisa started playing as a child, taught by her grandfather and her uncle. She continued to Roosevelt High School, where she played drums, trumpet, bass and guitar. At 19, she was urged to try the guitarrón, a six-string acoustic bass common in mariachi.

While playing at Fresno's annual Viva El Mariachi festival she caught the eye of legendary mariachi band leader Jose Hernandez of Mariachi Sol de Mexico, who was looking to start an all-female group.

Orduño was selected for his group, Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles, in 1992 and it became the premier all-female mariachi group.

In 1999, she quit the group to become a teacher. That lasted only briefly, before she got the itch to play music again and eventually formed Mariachi Mujer 2000. The group plays about eight to 10 shows per year, usually big festivals and private events. Its members are spread around the Western United States, including El Paso, San Jose and the Los Angeles area.

Orduño is the only member from Fresno, where she spends her time preparing to re-enter school in pursuit of a master's degree in career counseling and managing the group out of her home.

Carmen Orduño-Rodriguez is proud and remembers something her own father told her after he saw a young Marisa play.

"This little kid, this baby, she has so much talent, she's going to be somebody someday."