'It's our culture': 4 El Paso ISD schools to compete in UIL State Mariachi Festival

Mariachi Estrella Del Oeste — Franklin High School's mariachi ensemble — is competing for a gold medal in Texas UIL competition.

"I call it the Friday Night Lights of Mariachi because championship legacy schools dominate every year," said Mike Hernandez, Franklin's mariachi teacher. "It's a combination of theater, musical mastery with a sports team-like mentality. It's serious how well students perform. It's like a whole new professional forum for young students. It's hard and very complex for these students."

Franklin, Austin, Chapin and Coronado high schools are in Seguin for the 2024 UIL State Mariachi Festival, a three-day competition that started Feb. 22. Other Borderland school districts have teams that received spots in the competition as well.

Franklin musicians have spent days rehearsing for the state competition during their class period and after school. Under Hernandez's direction, it's the second time the mariachi band has secured a spot in the festival.

"It's a blessing because we put in so much work and it's not just music. It's our culture," said Anais Santos, the student director of Mariachi Estrella Del Oeste. "It's very important that we continue our culture,"

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Mariachi Estrella Del Oeste will be playing the songs: "Asi son los hombres," "Historia de un amor" and "El gallo."

Santos, a senior at Franklin, started playing the violin at 8 years old. She joined the orchestra and has been part of the mariachi ensemble since it began in her sophomore year.

Santos plans to continue her music education and mariachi studies to become a music teacher and have a business to open up a music academy.

High school mariachi programs have been around in El Paso since the late 1970s, but now more specialized teachers are getting jobs at school districts to develop programs, Hernandez said.

"I feel like this is one of the factors and reasons West Texas has been able to get to state competitions in the past 10 years," he said. "Mariachi education in school is not always pushed, but since it has been introduced at the UIL levels. It means a lot to all of us who teach this music — even the students. The state competition has definitely helped programs start, survive, and thrive in El Paso."

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: 'Friday Night Lights' of mariachi music: 2024 UIL Mariachi Festival